


Babysitters

by nyapowers15



Series: Descendants [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 06:34:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 38,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13875186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyapowers15/pseuds/nyapowers15
Summary: It’s the restoration period of the Galra Empire, a time when all battles are over and Emperor Lotor could finally settle down. Lotor ends up marrying Allura shortly after they have their first child, Eden. Soon after they welcome Zion into their family. Their son and daughter are remarkably talented and intelligent, showing signs of being older than their size. But when Allura once again gets pregnant, the family gets stressed out when they learn the pregnancy is not viable. Eden and Zion soon realize that their parents are not always going to be there for them, and that things in life aren’t always pretty. While all of this is going on, a new enemy rises and threatens to take out both of the children.





	1. All about Eden

Princess Eden Jaxine-Sincline 

Eden- Beginning  
Jaxine- Violet  
Sincline- Second name of Lotor

Age: 4 (birthday August 6 on Earth, Time unit 4.9b day 8 in the Galra Empire) (Quintessence linked blood, predicted to slow aging drastically when he hits his late teens like Lotor did) 

Starsign: Leo 

Height: 41 inches 

Hair: white (curly)  
Skin: lilac  
Eyes: Irises-Blue Outer-Yellow

Fangs: yes (single on top, double on bottom)  
Claws: yes

Altean markings: Standard (red) 

Family: Emperor Lotor (Father)  
Queen Allura (Mother)  
Prince Zion (Brother)  
King Alfor (Grandfather) (Deceased)  
Unnamed Grandmother (Deceased)  
Zarkon (Grandfather) (Deceased)  
Honerva/Haggar (Grandmother) (Alive)  
Several unnamed extended relatives  
Team Voltron (Godparents)  
Unborn twin siblings (One male, one female)

Outfits:  
Casual- Black skirt, athletic long sleeved grey shirt with maroon accents, combat boots, dark grey pantaloons.  
Formal- Short purple and blue dress with gold accents, flats  
Royal- Long dark blue and gold dress with black obuckle-less belt, crown resembling Altean princess crown with luxite gem, heels  
School- standard school uniform: black jumpsuit with accents of student’s choice (orange), combat boots  
Combat- Galra battle class armor resembling Lotor’s prince uniform. Weapon of choice: blaster gun, sniper gun, ninja stars, staff (secondary)  
Travel- combat with a space helmet  
Night- varying colors of nightgowns 

Hairstyles:  
Downdo - hair reaches her lower back (casual, royal)  
Half up half down (man bun)- hair reaches lower back (formal)  
High bun - (Night, School)  
High ponytail - hair reaches mid back (combat)  
Two french braids - hair reaches upper back (travel with helmet) 

Physical:  
Full sprint (like she’s being chased by the devil himself)- 28 mph (extremely fast)  
Deadlift- 3x bodyweight  
Flexibility- highly hyperextended on right side, lowly hyperextended on left side  
Right handed 

Powers:  
Altean alchemic powers (both parents)  
Super agility (father)  
Super strength (both) 

Talents:  
Singing  
Dance (lyrical)  
Memorization (can recite an entire conversation word for word) 

Academics:  
Strong in science  
Strong in language

Favorites:  
Animal - cats  
Color - orange  
Food - icing 

Personality: Eden has a very open personality and takes after her mother with concerning the lives of all, however, there are at some points when she can be very prideful and argumentative, especially towards her brother. She gets upset if anyone points out the flaws in her, though she still sees herself as far from perfect. She’s true to her starsign, and though sometimes she can come off as rude, she still cares deeply about all of her family members and when a serious situation arises she takes action in brightening to mood or calming and reassuring Zion. If the situation is seen as dumb to her, she tells Zion to suck it up and gets annoyed (when he throws his tantrums). Eden is four, and she’s very mature and aware for a four year old, as the average person doesn’t usually show awareness of international issues until they are around eleven or twelve years old. Eden is aware of most matters of the Empire, and sometimes throws out some of her ideas, in which Lotor takes into great consideration since they actually make sense. Eden is diplomatic because of that, and she wants the best for all groups of people. She’s a huge mix of both of her parents, showing righteous anger and having a very soft side for making people happy. Eden is well behaved around adults, though there are sometimes when she does things that she knows is wrong, which is very normal for a child. She does get punished, usually with grounding or being sent to her room. 

Family Relationships:

Lotor- Eden is Lotor’s Princess, and he often brings her along on trips to get a feel for what’s around her. Lotor cares very much about her, and if anyone comments anything bad about her, he gets extremely upset. Lotor doesn’t spoil everything for her too much though, and doesn’t just brush off her occasional bad behavior. He is usually the one who tells her to go to her room if things get too out of hand, knowing that this is what all children do and tells her that she is better than some of her actions. He sees Allura in her, and often tells Allura that she is definitely her daughter, mostly because she is determined and fierce.

Allura- Eden was quite the surprise to Allura, and Allura was ecstatic when she found out she was having a daughter. Allura and Eden bond through doing girly things, like playing with makeup or playing dress up. Eden looks up to her mother intently, seeing her mother as beautiful and her number one idol. Allura corrects Eden whenever she says things a bit too out of hand, and sometimes uses healthy reverse physiology to get Eden to correct her mistakes on her own. Eden is attached to her mother’s hip whenever there are a lot of people, looking for comfort as Eden likes being around people, just not huge groups of them. 

Zion- Zion and Eden have a similar relationship to DJ and Stephanie from Full House. They fight one heck of a lot, and Eden often sees Zion as very immature and not nearly at her level with anything. There are a few times where the fights can get physical, as Allura and Lotor both caught them pinching each other and just yelling for three minutes straight. Eden can say some very mean things to Zion, like how he would never be ruler. He then goes on to say how he is smarter than her (which is technically true), but whenever Zion is genuinely worried about something (like when Allura got sick, or when his lizards die, or when an attacker tries to infiltrate Central Commander and they hear explosions outside), Eden is the first to comfort him and calm him down and keep him from crying because she knows that she feels the same way as him. They’re also each other’s best friend, and they go to each other whenever they’re bored and need someone to play with. They share interest in science experiments.

Honerva- Haggar is now good and still recovering and fixing herself, focusing on retrieving the rest of her memories and self care. Eden is cautious around her, tending to stray away whenever she visits, however, they do have a lot in common. Honerva used to be aspiring and get excited about her passions, which Eden is exactly that. They sometimes bond over common interests like science, but Lotor often watches these interactions in hopes that Haggar doesn’t give Eden anything about what happened with Zarkon and the whole family with memory loss and lies about who the mother was, since she doesn’t need to know.

“I KNOW you did not just call me a hoe!” 

“Mama, Zion’s an idiot.” 

“I’ll be empress one day even if that means saying goodbye to ice cream forever!”

Comparable characters:

Angelica Pickles (all grown up)   
Candace Flynn (Phineas and Ferb)  
DJ (Full House)  
Nala (The Lion King)


	2. All about Zion

Prince Zion Ace-Sincline

Zion- Excellence  
Ace- Prodigy/ Unity  
Sincline- Second name of Lotor

Age: 2 (almost three) (birthday March 28 on Earth, Time unit 19.3a day 5 in the Galra Empire)  
(Quintessence linked blood, predicted to slow aging drastically when he hits his late teens like Lotor did) 

Starsign: Aries

Height: 35 inches 

Hair: white (wavy)  
Skin: lilac  
Eyes: Irises- ((heterochromia)) Left blue Right purple Outer-White

Fangs: yes (double on top, double on bottom)  
Claws: yes

Altean markings: Standard (blue) 

Family: Emperor Lotor (Father)  
Queen Allura (Mother)  
Princess Eden (Sister)  
King Alfor (Grandfather) (Deceased)  
Unnamed Grandmother (Deceased)  
Zarkon (Grandfather) (Deceased)  
Honerva/Haggar (Grandmother) (Alive)  
Several unnamed extended relatives  
Team Voltron (Godparents)  
Unborn twin siblings (One male, one female)

Outfits:  
Casual- Dark grey pantaloons with navy blue long sleeved zip up shirt with maroon accents, combat boots  
Formal- Black pantaloons with dress boots, maroon and gold waist cape, long sleeved dark grey and black shirt with gloves  
Royal- Soft blue pantaloons with dress boots, blue and gold Altean-Galra unity symbol shoulder cape, battleclass blue and gold chest plate, long sleeved black undershirt, belt, black and indigo crown  
School- standard school uniform: black jumpsuit with accents of student’s choice (blue), combat boots  
Combat- Galra battle class armor resembling Lotor’s prince uniform. Weapon of choice: single edged sword, daggar, staff (secondary)  
Travel- combat with a space helmet  
Night- Just normal pajamas that you’d imagine a young earthling boy wearing, sometimes there are cuss words on them because Pidge gives them as gifts in special occasions (god dammit Pidge) 

Hairstyles:  
Go loose- side bangs and just wild ass hair (casual, night)  
Gelled back- similar style to Lotor’s hair only it reaches his shoulders (formal, royal)  
Small ponytail- (school, combat, travel) 

Physical:  
Full sprint (like she’s being based by the devil himself)- 18 mph (super fast)  
Deadlift- 3.5x bodyweight  
Flexibility- highly hyperextended on left side, lowly hyperextended on right side  
Left handed 

Powers:  
Altean alchemic powers (both parents)  
Super agility (father)  
Super strength (both) 

Talents:  
Cussing  
Close combat  
Acrobatics 

Academics:  
Strong in science  
Extremely strong in language  
Strong in math 

Favorites:  
Animal - lizards  
Color - blue  
Food - beef jerky (kaltenecker oof)  
FORTNITE FOR SURE OH MY GOD.

Personality: Zion has quite the personality. He’s extremely loud and boisterous, and his actions are definitely that of his age. His choice of words match that of an adult, his word range literally indefinite to the point where he uses… very colorful language. If there’s any way to describe just what he needs to say, it’s through his word choice. He began speaking at just four months old, and by the time he was one he was speaking at a range of a child. Zion can be very misbehaved, he’s energetic, and when he gets angry it shows. He often does things opposite as told just to get a reaction. Though his words don’t match his age, his actions do, and his terrible twos are still present. He tends to throw tantrums if he forgets something when leaving Central Command. However, Zion does have a very soft spot for animals and looks up to Keith and Lotor, seeing them both as heroes of close combat. He can be very sweet and has a heck of a lot of empathy. If he feels someone is upset, he gets upset right along with them. He tends to be the one who cries when something just isn’t right, and the difference between him throwing a tantrum and that is that he will try not to show his tears if he’s genuinely upset. He tries to be strong and mighty, but he’s extremely young. He does get righteously jealous about not being able to see all the sights that Eden does, but both of his parents told him that in order to go on trips, he needs to be more appropriate around adults and not flip everyone off for no reason. Zion is also hyper aware and reads people well, and he often feels at school that people only want to be his friend because of his rank.

Family Relationships:

Lotor- Zion and Lotor go a long way. Lotor does change his demeanor around Zion, like he’ll sit criss crossed around Zion partially because Lotor misses being that young, and Zion is his ticket for his nostalgia since Lotor was a lot like Zion when he was young. Lotor used to just cackle with laughter and was very rebellious. Lotor and Zion bond through talking about combat and science, including Lotor watching Zion play Fortnite and their shared hatred for Lance. Lotor never forgets about Zion on his trips, and he’ll always bring back a present. Lotor does sometimes have enough of Zion’s outbursts and tries to maintain his cool, and lets Zion finish what he needs to get out before determining what he should do with him. Lotor gets shocked himself by some of the things Zion says to describe his anger, one time he said he felt like wanting everyone to literally burn in hell for teasing him. Lotor sadly sees himself in Zion, being brutal when situations get overwhelming. His hopes are to teach Zion better ways to cope.

Allura- Zion put Allura to the test with patience, but that doesn’t stop her from loving him absolutely to death. They bond most when Lotor and Eden are gone on trips and Allura stays behind to watch Zion. Allura corrects Zion using positive reverse physiology to get him to correct himself by himself, which shows positive effect. She values Zion for his empathy, in high hopes that he’ll use that to understand people’s trouble for whatever he becomes, whether it’s Emperor or Commander. Allura gets on edge with Zion whenever he’s lazy and his room is messy since he’s fully capable of not letting food rot or be on Fortnite the entire day. It’s typical organized mother and messy son, and it adds onto the household comedy with the pranks that Zion likes to pull on Allura just for shits and giggles.

Eden- Zion looks up to Eden, and copies a lot of what she does. He longs for her presence and loves her company, and starts fights with her just for entertainment. He also looks to her for comfort, and sometimes would sleep in her room (she usually kicks him out in the middle of the night because he farts in his sleep). However, Eden could be his biggest anger firestarter. He gets really pissed whenever she says that he’ll never be the emperor because of his immature actions. They bond through scientific experiments, and they play with acidic things (which they’re not allowed to). 

Honerva- Haggar is now good and still recovering and fixing herself, focusing on retrieving the rest of her memories and self care. She doesn’t really get Zion. She didn’t know how two very organized parents could give birth to such a drastic messy and unorganized wild child, until she realized a lot of Zion’s personality actually comes directly from Lotor and hanging out with Pidge. Zion is the only person who is able to make her smile since she fell into a depression, and often tells her jokes and talks her to death. Though Lotor and Allura are still coming to terms with what really happened with Haggar, they’re happy that their son is able to make her happy. 

“I ain’t gel this hair back tonight for nothin’, sis.” 

“I swear if Lance beats me at Fortnite again I’m going to beat his ass into the next reality!” 

“Papa, what the hell is a ‘sexy time’?”

Comparable characters:

Phil (Rugrats and All Grown Up)   
Blu (Foster’s home)  
Stewie (Family Guy)   
Max (Campcamp)


	3. Beginning

“What the hell is that thing?” Pidge scrunched her nose, looking at the small precious face of a new life brought into the universe. 

“That’s a baby, Pidge.” Keith rolled his eyes dramatically, elbowing her. 

“She looks like that one little shit… what’s his name again? Oh yeah-“ She turned towards Lotor, who frowned. “Lotor.” Pidge wasn’t quite happy with Lotor. Lotor and her got into a major argument over algorithms earlier that day.

“Her name is Eden and I just pushed this thing out of me so you’re going to like her and that’s how it is going to be!” Allura yelled. 

Okay, so, Eden’s birth wasn’t taken in very much of a way it should have been. What happened was Allura and Lotor did a thing, the thing. But hey man I mean- if they’re the last two Alteans (CORAN AND HAGGAR ARE TOO OLD) then you gotta do what you gotta do. She was born on the Earth equivalent of August 6th, making her a Leo and a fire sign. 

Eden had a stunning face for a baby, with Allura’s wide eye shape and a button nose, along with all of Lotor’s pigmentations, like periwinkle and yellow eyes and lilac skin. She had a mass of curly hair when she was born, shiny white hair and pointed ears, along with red Altean markings like Lotor’s mother Honerva. Her grin was like Lotor’s smile, and they were able to determine that she would have Altean powers.

Eden means the beginning. The beginning of what, you ask? Well. The war was actually pretty much over and they were in that whole time frame of sorta figuring everything out and figuring out who’s doing what. All of the paladins decided to visit Earth, however, they felt their true destiny was to continue defending the universe. Lotor ended up doing the one thing that made sense. Taking the throne, and this time, actually ruling instead of being in the shadows. Within the time that he took the first took the throne after the demise of Zarkon, he fell in love with Allura. The war went on. There was a huge power struggle for all in the Galra Empire, and they found it would take quite a bit of time to be able to tear it down and make it anew. Lotor and Allura grew closer together as they were meant for each other as the last alteans alive who are of age for having kids, the last chosen ones to carry along the amazing tradition of Altean alchemy. It was one night that they were alone when Allura ended up pregnant with Lotor’s child, and they kept it a secret until Allura’s mood swings got out of hand and the paladins started to question why Allura threw a shoe at Lance and why she called Keith a ‘quiznacking duflax’. It was then Lotor broke the news, and each of the paladins had very mixed feelings about what was going on. Pidge was worried about the state of the empire and how everything was still trying to heal and set itself into place, why should they have to worry about a baby? Hunk was excited, and hugged Lotor for at least 45 seconds until Lotor had to pull himself away. Shiro had just come back and was confused on how Allura fell in love with Lotor in the first place, in fact, he missed pretty much everything about how Lotor came into play. Keith was chill about it, happy for both of them, as well as Coran, but Coran took awhile to accept it, protective of Allura. And Lance? Well Lance cried for about a week. Then he came to terms with it, as long as the child would call him Uncle Lance.

Lotor promised Eden the most normal childhood possible. He married Allura months later since it’s what seemed right, and together, they destroyed the Old Galra Empire and rebuilt it entirely to be what is now known at The New Galra Empire. Allura became queen, and although many were not pleased that an Altean was their galra queen, many were reminded that Zarkon once too married an Altean and had a half Altean sons Allura could not become an Empress, since she was not of galra decent, though she was a diplomatic figure like Haggar was to Zarkon. The first rule was then put in place. Discrimination of species was not allowed, since many aliens were quite compatible, since a lot of them were humanoids. Lotor held that close to home, as his first belief was accepting everyone, for everyone had their strengths and weaknesses, and together anyone could do something great.

Months later, Allura became pregnant again, and this time, it was meant to happen. Princess Eden now had a younger brother, Prince Zion Ace-Sincline of the New Galra Empire. 

Zion has wavy scruffy white hair in the form of a Mohawk when he was first born, along with a set of blue Altean markings with lilac skin and the same button nose. There was something interesting about him though, and that was that he had heterochromia, where his irises were unmatched. The outer part of his eyes were white from the Altean blood, but one iris was dark violet while the other was blue. Lotor thought it was the coolest thing that could happen and that was what people were going to remember about him. 

Zion has a bubbly personality from the beginning, but it wasn’t much of a delicate bubbly like Eden’s demeanor. It was a fiery one, one where the baby stayed up all night cracking himself up and screaming in his crib. The only way he would fall asleep is if he was laying against Allura’s chest and Lotor had his hand across his back. It took him forever to start sleeping by himself, yet when he did, he never actually used his bed. He slept off in a corner somewhere, Kova under his arms. Once he fell asleep in the bathtub, other times in the sink, sometimes on top of the fridge in one of the kitchens. Never in the bed. Ever. 

Lotor promised Zion a normal childhood as well, but Lotor also noticed later on that Zion ached to learn new things. However, Zion wasn’t well behaved. Zion was hyperactive, and constantly argued. Allura told Lotor that Zion was not to do any exploring until he was three years old and showed maturity, yet Lotor said he was the same way when he was a toddler. Lotor was a rebellious child.

So Eden was four and Zion was getting ready to turn three and things were finally seeming to calm down. Outside of diplomatic business, Allura spent time just watching them grow up. Lotor was often out with his own stuff and never really sat for a full day on his throne throwing around orders, he was active with his job and willing to make the empire as close to what he wanted it to be by the end of his reign. He took Eden on a lot of his trips as an education seeing she was next in line, and this often made Zion jealous, but in reality the only reason why he stayed back at central command so much was because he was just too young and had zero self control. He didn’t like long trips, he didn’t like being in huge crowds of people, typical of a toddler. Lotor didn’t know whether or not his kids aged differently, they seemed to be growing steadily. Lotor said that due to the quintessence infused with his blood, he slowed dramatically in aging by the time he was a late teen, not showing any signs of getting older for centuries. His children might have that too. They would find out later, and it was his children’s decision if they did have short lifespans if they wanted to lengthen it was quintessence. 

Either way, he saw his children both being amazing warriors and leaders when they got to be adults.

——

 

“Zion, Lux will be here in about ten dobashes. Are you even dressed?” Allura opened the door to Zion’s room to see him in nothing but his underwear playing video games, surrounded by books of cheat codes. 

“Not right now. I’m playing an old game called Fortnite that Lance gave me.” Zion grumbled, not looking away from the hologram screen. 

“Zion, I told you to be dressed and ready a varga ago!” Allura said, almost desperate. “You are very capable of getting yourself ready now.” 

“Nope. A typical toddler does not know how to dress, and is on early developmental stages of learning how to brush their teeth with the adult toothpaste. Now leave me alone.” Zion refused.

“Zion Ace Sincline, if you can speak better than me then you can get dressed! Now do it before I take your video games away!” Allura snapped. Zion turned towards her, and now she could see that his face was covered in chocolate ice cream. 

“Nope.” 

Allura stomped in there and unplugged his gaming system. Zion screamed.

“Go get dressed or it’ll be gone for the rest of the movement! March, young man.” She demanded.

Zion growled, getting up and dragging his feet dramatically over to his closet, walking in, and shutting the door. Allura sighed. Zion took terrible twos to a whole new level. Not only was he intelligent and used the language of an adult, but had the attitude of a teenager and the actions of a child his age. He wasn’t a bad kid, he was just…. rebellious. Allura blamed pretty much everyone on team Voltron, especially Lance and Pidge, but in reality, that was alllllllll Lotor. 

Later, Zion sat at the dining room table playing cards with Lux. Lux was the three year old daughter of Acxa and some crap bag dude from a one night stand, and she was seventy five percent galra. She had Acxa’s eyes, ears, and hair, yet her skin was a bit more purple and she didn’t have the horns. She was Zion’s best friend. She was a lot quieter, not as quiet and serious as Acxa, but she did like running around with Zion. The After they played cards, they ran around the throne room holding foam daggers and playing a game they called ‘conquer the enemy’. The point of the game was just like tag, but more brutal in a sense. The winner was the first to stab their opponent three times (metaphorically). Allura watched from her throne while they ran around, hoping that neither of them would kill each other. She had to remind herself that they were foam daggers, but it still made her sick to her stomach that they were handling the game like they were actually in a battle with each other. Moreover, this was just their warrior heritage. Generations back and back and back were warriors. 

“I’m going to cut your head off!” Zion joked.

“Not if i rip yours off first!” Lux giggled loudly. 

Zion was catching up to Lux and Lux halted, turning to trip Zion. Allura heard the wind get knocked out of him. Luz then got down on him and held him down, pinning him to the galra symbol on the floor. “Treason!” He exclaimed. “I am the Prince!”

“Hey, I thought that didn’t count in this game, you meanie!” Lux frowned, getting up. Zion pulled the prince card whenever he lost at something. It was cheating and something common of any toddler, but Zion had a greater mind. After seeing this so many times, Allura thought it might be time to give him a very important question.

Allura tapped her fingers on the arm of her throne and had her other hand holding her head up. “Zion, please come over here.” She motioned with her finger. Zion looked over with wide eyes and got up, running towards her.

“Yeah?” He asked lowly, so Lux wouldn’t hear.

“What did your father tell you about being in a field of battle, or, in any none diplomatic situation?” She asked.

“What’s diplomatic?” He scrunched his nose. 

“Like, a meeting with royal figures.” She said. “Lux, you come over here too.”

Lux walked over and stood next to Zion. “Is it about Zion smelling like dirt?”

“No I’ll ask you the same question, you’re smart enough, right? I’m going to speak to you like an adult.” Allura smiled, slightly laughing at Lux’s snide comment. “What is it about everyone in a field of battle, what do they have in common at an offensive warrior’s position when guided by a leader?”

“Oh! I know- um….” Lux rubbed her chin. “Ummmm, they all have a weapon!”

“Most of the time, yes. Zion?” 

“They all fight each other, right?”

“Yes. Do you think if you had a certain title and you got hit, does it count?” She made sure she specifically made eye contact with Zion. 

“Of course it does! You’re hurt!” He put his hands on his hips.

“Interesting.. Run along now.” Allura nodded her head and rested her eyelids. Zion and Lux continued the game. 

This time, Zion was once again pinned. He didn’t accuse her of treason, instead, admitted he needed to brush up on his skills and not play the game like he was in fortnite. Allura grinned, happy to see Zion’s change in mindset. 

Later that night, Lotor arrived back along with Princess Eden. Zion was ecstatic to see her. Eden- well…...

“I got to see the Blamera again.” Eden boasted proudly at the dinner table that night. 

“Yeah, okay, like I care.” Zion rolled his eyes, his cheek in his hand. He poked at his food with his fork. 

“Zion, don’t be rude to your sister.” Allura corrected him. 

Lotor went on to talk about how the Balmerans were willing to help out with some of the clean up from the war. Zion and Eden did nothing but stare at each other, anger on both of their faces. 

“You’re just jealous.” Eden said. “I had to wait until I was three, you’re not even three.” 

“Kids.” Allura flashed them both a look. Lotor put his hand out. 

“Let them continue.” He said. He believed that it was worth a try to get their kids to work out their own problems. 

“Eden thinks she’s better than me because she has the birthright!” Zion shot up, slamming his hands down on the table and standing on his chair. “She’s just jealous because I’m smarter than her!” 

“Well Zion doesn’t even know how to put his shirt on the right way!” Eden stood.

“Well at least I know how to win a game of Fortnite!” 

“Well at least I didn’t pee my bed two nights ago!” 

Zion gasped. “You did NOT- just SAY THAT!” 

“Alright, alright.” Lotor stopped them. “Eden, a birthright is nothing but a hoax. In the end it’s whoever is more capable. We’re long from that decision. And Zion, you know you are not allowed to go on trips until you can cooperate around adults, and no, flipping everyone off just because Pidge does it doesn’t make it okay.” 

Zion whimpered pitifully, sliding back down into his seat. “I’m a higher rank than any of them.” 

“It is not good sportsmanship.” Lotor said. 

“Whatever, I’m going to my room. I have a Fortnite game to play against Lance.” Zion pushed his plate away from him, dismissing himself. They watched him walk away, kicking nothing in frustration. Lotor looked at Allura with raised eyebrows, and Allura shrugged.

“If he thinks he’s ever going to be Emperor, he’s sadly mistaken.” Eden shook her head, taking a sip of her juice.

“That’s enough, Eden. That is not of our concern right now.” Allura turned towards Eden with a sharp look on her face.

 

Zion sat on the ground with his controller in hand, a blanket draped over his head. “I’m coming for you, Lance! Hunk is on my side now.” 

The door to his room opened and Lotor walked in. “Hey, Bud.” 

“Papa, not now.” Zion whined, annoyed by the interruption. 

“No, finish the game, I’ll watch.” Lotor sat down next to him, crossing his legs like a child, just to mimic his son. He watched as Zion continued to scream into his headset. When Lance killed him, he slammed his controller down and shrieked. Lotor’s eyes widened slowly. He almost forgot how loud and hyperactive his son was, and Zion stopped and cleared his throat.

“So what is it you want?” He smiled cutely. Yep. He had Allura’s mood swings. 

“I need to talk to you. I believe you are old enough to understand, right?” Lotor asked. Zion gave him a questioned pair of eyes, and with that Lotor laughed. “Okay. Here it is. You understand why you have to wait back here?” 

“I’m too little, I know.” Zion frowned, crossing his arms to sulk. 

“You remind me of myself when I was younger, so eager to learn.” Lotor softly smiled. “You will get the chance to when I think you’re ready, but the reason you weren’t allowed to go on this particular one was for a different reason.” He then drew something from the back of his belt, shaped like a sword, the size of a machete. A mini sword. “I think you are ready, even though you’re quite young.” 

Zion stared at it in awe as Lotor drew the sword from it’s case, the shine of it reflecting off of Zion’s lights. It was single edged like a knife, yet the point of it was thick and rounded. It was a rare sword that is more dangerous than a standard since the shape of it allowed the carrier to easily hit the opponent. “Are you sure?” 

“Well that depends. Will you use it wisely and only in supervision, this is not a toy, son.” 

Zion jumped up and threw his arms around his father. “Thank you Thank you Thank you so much!” 

Lotor loved this moment. Lotor loved children, and loved his children even more. He loved how Zion’s tiny arms couldn’t even get around the neck of his suit, how Zion’s fluffy white hair was in his face. 

And he wondered.

Was giving Zion this sword a good decision?

————

Eden was fed up with Zion. Zion ran around central command the next day wielding his brand new sword in his hand while Lotor chased him around yelling out technical mistakes and corrections. Allura walked out in the hall and saw this happening, and stopped both of them. “Woah woah woah! What’s this?” 

“Papa’s training me!” Zion beamed, out of breath. 

“Mama, if Zion comes near me with that wretched thing I’m moving out!” Eden tugged on Allura’s dress. Zion stuck out his tongue, holding up his middle finger. Lotor snapped his fingers at him, indicating not to use the gesture. 

“I’m training him on how to hold the sword in a way that there is minimal chance that he’ll hit himself while running.” Lotor explained. 

“Yeah! And it’s something that Eden is bad at!” Zion teased Eden, who tapped her foot, hands on hips. 

“You know that I’m not a swordsman! I’m better with a gun than you’ll ever be!” 

“That’s enough, children.” Lotor said.

“Lotor, are you sure this is the correct way to train our son?” Allura looked pale, but Lotor recognized this look from before. He saw it two other times. It couldn’t be.

“Honey, are you feeling alright?” Lotor stepped forward and caressed Allura’s cheek. 

“Mama?” Zion dropped his sword on the ground, and Eden looked up at her with concerned eyes. 

“I’m fine.” She reassured them all, smiling. “I promise I am.” 

Lotor and her locked eyes for a solid minute, and Eden and Zion looked at each other with worried brows. Lotor finally broke the awkward silence.

“Eden, Zion, go play elsewhere. I need to have a talk with your mother. And Zion, don’t handle the sword until you have my consent again.” Lotor directed, patting both of their heads. Eden and Zion walked off without question. 

—-

They sat in Eden’s room, Zion on her bed and Eden at her vanity, brushing her long curly hair. Zion swing his feet, clutching the edge of the bed. “Is Mama alright?” He asked.

“Oh, she’s probably just ill or something.” Eden said. “Remember how we were both sick with that bug last week? And how she held us?” 

“Yeah, but…” 

“Zion, do not worry. You get worked up whenever something is wrong. You have to stop doing that.” Eden put down her brush, walking up to him. He frowned. 

“Well sorry for worrying about my mother!” He shouted. 

“Zion, shhhh.” She hopped up next to him. “Papa says that he can take care of anything. Remember when you fell and hurt your leg and he made that funny face to make you laugh?” 

Zion stared down at his feet, squinting. “It just seems like she’s been acting odd lately. She yelled at us last week for no reason!” 

Eden put her hand on his knee. “Well whatever happens you know we’re the original team. Who can ever stop us from making things happy? Mama and Papa made the entire empire happy. I hate to admit it but… you’re like a best friend. You use that big brain of yours and you could do anything.” 

“This is about me getting mad at dinner last night, isn’t it? About how I can’t go on special trips, I get it.” Zion pouted. 

“Yes, Zi, it is. And it’s about something else. I don’t think Mama and Papa will be able to focus on us that much anymore, we’re going to have to do a lot of stuff on our own.” Eden’s face dropped, her eyes saddening. “I think I know what’s wrong with her. She’s been really moody. She’s been pale and tired.” 

“And?” Zion was clueless. 

“She’s not ill. I lied to you.” Eden sighed, hopping off of the bed. “She’s-“ 

The door opened, and there stood one of the guards. “Sorry to disturb you, Princess, Prince, but your father ordered you to dinner early tonight.” 

“Tell then to give us time.” Zion said.

“He said it is an urgent matter, little boy.” He said in a stupid tone that adults used towards small kids. 

“You talk to me as if I’m a child.” Zion was wildly offended, about to square up with the guard. 

“My mistake, your highness, but you are a child.” 

“And I’m the boss of you! You dare speak to me with such a bewildering tone on your tongue? You’ll be sorry.” Zion’s eyebrows furrowed in deep anger, and his fists clenched down by his sides.

“Zion, just come on.” Eden grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the room. “I’m sorry for my brother.” 

The guard didn’t answer, only wondered why a child just tried to fight him. 

——

“Why are you so worried about it? Why did you not tell me before?” Lotor said, urging Allura to sit down at the dinner table. 

“Because I don’t feel right with it, physically… or emotionally. It doesn’t feel like the last two times. I feel tired and sick.” She frowned, tears forming in her eyes. “My mother warned me about the symptoms, she told me if I ever felt them then it’s a major sign that it might… fail.” 

“It’ll be fine. We shall tell the kids the news, yet we need to start tests on you as soon as possible.” Lotor clasped his hands over hers, and she clenched her jaw. 

So they sent a guard and soon enough their children walked in, sitting down at the table. Lotor and Allura tried their best to keep their faces from looking grave, it was best not to worry their children and put stress on them either. They felt it was the best thing to do. 

“Is this about Mama drinking energy drinks?” Eden asked.

Zion gasped. “That’s what it is!”

“Of course, dude. She’s been moody and extra tired! That means she’s been having too many energy drinks! That’s what I was trying to tell you. And that is why they’re aren’t going to be able to take care of us anymore because energy drinks cause heart attacks. I read it in Pidge’s journal.” Eden elbowed Zion. 

“No, it is most definitely not that. Have a seat.” Lotor gestured for them to sit down next to them, and he made sure he had their eyes and ears. 

“You see, kids. It is true that things will be a lot more busy around here for a long time. However, don’t ever think we are going to stop taking care of you.” Allura explained. “So if things seem very out of the ordinary and chaotic, don’t worry.” 

“Wait- so it’s not energy drinks?” Eden tilted her head to the side.

“Oh wait! I know what it is! She’s progressive! It’s car insurance on earth!” Zion raised his hand like he was in a class. 

“No, son. It’s called being pregnant. Your mother is pregnant.” Lotor laughed lightly. 

“WHAT.” Eden and Zion both shouted. 

“It it’s a boy I swear to-“ Eden grumbled.

“IF IT’S A BOY THEN PRAISE THE GODS.” Zion cheered. 

“We actually will not know for awhile, so be extra careful around your mother from now on.” Lotor smiled reassuringly. He wanted to tell them, he really did. He wanted to tell them that Allura was feeling dangerous symptoms, both of his children talked like adults. They both had intelligence beyond expected, but they were still little kids. It was one thing Zarkon forgot about Lotor when he was their age, Zarkon forgot Lotor was a child. Zarkon told Lotor stuff beyond his emotional strength, and Lotor wasn’t going to do that to them. Yet it hurt, it hurt so much to see his children so unaware. The same went for Allura. 

What if she ended up miscarrying?


	4. Risks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor and Allura receive gut wrenching news, partially surprising, that may require some choices to be made. Meanwhile, Zion becomes more aware of the disadvantages of his rank. When schedules don’t line up, Lotor has Eden and Zion run the royal meeting, which doesn’t end well.

“You two did this on your own?” Lotor looked at the little hologram screen of a science log, impressed. Eden and Zion both successfully constructed a diagram together of the acidity of Shiro’s burnt waffles. 

“Mm-hmm.” Zion rested his hand against his cheek. “Turns out they’re nearly poisonous. They killed my pet lizard.” 

“What? Zion, I’m sorry to hear this-“ Lotor was shocked and felt his heart lurch. Zion giggled.

“No, I mean it as a joke. Lance says it all the time!” 

Lotor still didn’t get the paladin’s metaphorical speech after being around them for half a decade. 

“We also found out that there was Ebola in one of the waffles. I’m happy to report that all the paladins know de wae now.” Eden added.

Lotor teaches his kids how to make science logs one time. 

———

A day later Allura felt like she couldn’t even get out of bed to walk. Lotor offered that they call in a doctor to treat her with quintessence, but Allura pointed out that it was not the best idea. Over the years Lotor was able to find out that Haggar was truly his mother, no matter how much he didn’t want to accept it. When she finally remembered most of her memories she told him that she wanted to prove it to him that she was his true mother. After much dispute and Allura urging Lotor to agree, he did, and Haggar put him into her mindscape just so he could see. 

It was true. One incident once told from one perspective was now seeing two, as Haggar’s memories showed that the exposure of the quintessence was the only thing to save her. Ultimately, the dark creatures that infected Zarkon faced the new paladins at the final blow of the war. Haggar never was corrupted. After she had given birth to Lotor at the end of the war Zarkon ordered that her memories be erased, as she still had a good heart. Zarkon didn’t want to give up his partner and crime and to the unwill of Haggar, she was convinced to be evil. 

The memories of Lotor were her saviors. 

So yes, Lotor did see entirely what happened. Both of his parents were good, they just didn’t know what the were doing. Haggar was pregnant with Lotor at the time of the exposure, in an attempt to stop miscarriage and the potential death of herself. Lotor spent days afterwards trying to figure out if it was the quintessence that made him born incredibly sick, for months after he was born he was extremely restless, and his cries were cries of pain.

The problem with quintessence is that although it’s extremely powerful and a source of clean energy, it isn’t a good resource for a substitute of life. Quintessence was a risk for an unborn child. 

But in Allura’s case, it was actually two unborn children. 

Yes, they did called in a doctor. And yes, they did run tests. And yes, Allura was pregnant with twins. 

For Altean women, their pregnancies run for about seven months instead of nine, but even then, Allura felt as if she was only three or maybe even four weeks along. As it turns out, she was about twelve weeks along out of the expected twenty eight. That came as a surprise because she showed no sign of being pregnant. 

The doctor scanned her stomach as Lotor stared intently at the screens and diagrams. Baby A had a vitality of 46%, and Baby B a vitality of 43%. The problem? Well, they didn’t quite know. “It looks as though they’re heartbeats are terribly irregular.” Lotor observed with a clenched jaw and fixed eyes. 

“Yes, sire. It’s as if they do not have enough blood supply getting to the heart, and the reason is that both of them are suffering from blood clots.” The doctor said.

“Why? Where did the blood clots come from?” Allura asked faintly, her eyes clenched shut. 

“For Altean women, multiples are rare. For parents of two descents, the chances for twins are slim to nothing. It could raise major complications, just like this one. What we recommend is bringing Haggar in here, since she may have an idea of this all. She could know a better solution.” 

Lotor’s face turned dark, and Allura looked horrified. Okay, so the whole thing with Haggar being Lotor’s mom was cleared up. It took a long time of explanation and proof that all of the memory loss and all of the confusion was from Zarkon himself. But then she had a confession to make to Lotor, and she said that she and Zarkon were both exposed to the rift solely to save Lotor, but it turned out really bad. Nothing turned out well, in fact, what happened triggered the ten decade war. What advice would she even give to them? Lotor supported pure quintessence and that was fact, but it had risks. “My mother?” 

“Yes, Sire.” The doctor determined. “But if we do not perform an operation almost immediately, then both of the children would perish.” 

“Operation? To do what?” 

“To surgically remove those blood clots.” The doctor stated. “The reason why you do not feel in health is because your body is working twice as hard to keep the babies alive.” She closed her screen. “But I must warn you, the procedure is risky.” 

“Allura, we…” Lotor didn’t quite know what to say. He knew of all solutions to any problem, but he knew nothing about pregnancy with cross breed twins. In fact, no one really knew anything about that at all. It seems as though the impossible happened to them. This was going to be controversial.

“Whatever will give me the best chance of my children being alive.” Allura managed to say firmly despite her pitied state. 

————-

Zion and Eden went to school twice a week just to be around people their age. Yes, they were beyond the levels of children their age, but they still needed to be around friends. The academy wasn’t too far from Central Command, it was sitting on an uninhabited planet named Xunlot, where the Galra children went to school. The academy was actually about two centuries old, and the ways of teaching were changed their. The Galra children went their to learn more important stuff like social skills, math and language, history and exploration, technology, and basic combat. The ways of old there were to teach the children that they were the master race, and that the only goal in life was to serve their Emperor. Lotor wanted them to learn things that he saw important himself as a child. How to read, what the universe was like with its cultures, how to fight as self defense. For example, he deemed combat as a sport of entertainment instead of a tool of war like karate and wrestling are down here on Earth. Zion was interested in combat the most. He wanted to be a paladin when he was older, he wanted to be a superhero and defend the universe, and he looked up deeply to Keith. Eden looked up to Allura with alchemy and diplomacy. So that’s what they each learned. 

Zion stood in line with the other children (all a bit older than he was) in an acrobatic class. Zion was very advanced, as a normal human his age would be learning basic motor skills like running and possibly skipping, but Zion being Galra and Altean was doing back handsprings and round offs and occasionally side aerials. He made friends with everyone in the class, being a celebrity of course. He was the prince. He always had bodyguards with him when he went to school. The students always asked him questions about what his life was like, which he always responded with “I play Fortnite and like Earth snacks.” 

“Do you think I can visit central command?” A kid named Vex asked Zion while they were jogging around the gym.

“No.” Zion said solidly.

“Why not?” Vex asked.

“Because you have to know the secret password.” Zion said.

“What is it?” 

“I can’t tell you, it’s secret.” 

Vex frowned, running faster and pass Zion. Zion slowed down, stopping. He thought about Vex for a second. Vex did this to Zion a lot, where he was constantly negotiating trying to get to Central Command. Apart from that, he and Zion never actually had true conversation about anything else. Zion knew he was being used by Vex, and not only Vex, by a lot of people at school. Some of which whom’s parents sought more power. Zion wanted real friends, ones who hung out with him for fun. He stepped away from the border of the gym, walking towards his bodyguards. They both kneeled down to him, ready to hear something most likely about how he needed to take a piss or a weird dream that he was thinking about. Instead, they got something totally unexpected. 

“Go after him.” Zion pointed to Vex. “Beat him the fuck up.” 

The looked at each other, then back at Zion. “May we ask why, Prince Zion?” 

“Because I said so.” Zion yelled, causing a few kids to look over at him. Oh no. 

It was then the Bodyguards went after him. Vex took a awhile to notice that they were going after him, and he stared at Zion in horror.

 

——-

“You did WHAT at school?” Lotor rubbed his forehead with his fingers. 

“He had the bodyguards beat up a kid!” Eden snitched, pointing to Zion who stood and sulked. 

“Well he deserved it!” 

“Zion, no one deserves to be beat up by bodyguards unless they’re attacking or stealing something, or if they’re about to do something that could cost a life, let alone a child!” Lotor was very upset hearing what happened, and Zion stood there with his arms crossed, looking at his feet. “Eden, go and do your homework. I need to talk to Zion alone.” 

“Wish you luck, my friend.” Eden patted Zion’s shoulder, knowing he was about to get a huge ass lecture, and walked off towards the library to do her homework. So now it was just Zion and Lotor and a few sentries lining the wall of the grand hall. Zion kept his mouth shut and Lotor knelt down to his level, trying to get his attention. Zion still refused to make eye contact.

“Okay, first question, was the kid bullying you?” 

Zion shook his head.

“Was he bullying your sister?” 

Zion shook his head again.

“So why did you order an attack on him?” 

Zion took a moment, and tried to think of his answer, but soon he felt his eyes well up. “I feel like the only reason why people want to be my friend is so they can come here and have power and stuff, and I hate how they do that. I really fucking hate it, Papa. I want real friends.” 

“Hey, do not say that word.” Lotor’s tone got soft. “But you know you have friends already who don’t care what you are. Like Lux? And Quovar? And all the paladins? You are my son, you have a very high rank, yes. But you have to remember that there are few who think on the same level as you. They struggle to realize that friends are supposed to be more than access to certain things. Zi, you are about to turn three years old. You’re getting taller each passing day, you’re becoming more fearless against those who seem to go against you, I bet you can raise your chin up and tell him off yourself. Tell him that you don’t want to be used. It’ll be a learning experience for both of you.” He put a hand on Zion’s shoulder, grabbing more of his attention. 

“Papa, I’m not sure if I’m brave. I’m not as brave as you or Mama. I can’t fight bad guys.” He put his face in his hands.

“And I have no intentions of you fighting bad guys until you are trained to, but Vex is not a bad guy. You and him can be best friends, you just need to apologize.” Lotor pulled Zion into a hug, comforting him. Zion was facing a common problem for all people. Of course his feelings were hurt, he was being used by someone who he thought was his friend, and for someone his age, he wanted to just be friends with everybody. However, what Zion did back to the kid was rash and to the extremes, and Lotor did worry about Zion becoming that way. He didn’t want Zion to ever be someone to hurt others for a small misunderstanding. What Lotor was teaching Zion now was to just be the bigger person.

“Apologize?” His voice was muffled by the collar of Lotor’s cape. 

“It’s the best and bravest thing a warrior can do. It takes a lot of guts too. Even I have trouble apologizing for my mistakes.” 

“I’ll do it tomorrow. :).” Zion pulled away from Lotor to show him a smile. That made Lotor feel warm inside. 

“Okay. But if I find out that you beat someone up again unless they’re being a complete imbecile, you’re grounded from Fortnite.” 

“No. Not Fortnite.” Back to the pouting Zion went.

——-

Lotor has completely forgotten about the Royal Assembly. 

Lotor refused to tell his children that their mother was in surgery. He paced across the hallway of the medical ward, and after much consideration and worry, decided to do the unthinkable. 

“Guards. Go and tell my children that the Royal Assembly is happening, and that they need to act as the representatives of the state.” Lotor commanded, his voice tired and raspy. 

“Yes, Sire.” They both looked at each other nervously. You’ll find out why.

Now the Royal Assembly is when all of the major powers that are under the Galra’s partial control come together at Central Command and decide on matters that were relevant to the time. This was a brand new thing, since a lot of the planets were not ready to rule on their own. Lotor believed to help them get back up on their feet is by healthy trade, when materials and work was exchanged for certain loans and the Galra military and protection. It was a huge step from Zarkon’s ways of just taking from them and slavery, and in this Lotor won over a lot of the Empire due to the healthy trade and therefore product for the Galra themselves. The discussion that night was going to be changes in distribution of materials due to stock changes. So it was important that Allura was there, since she was the one who oversaw economy, and Lotor was the one who oversaw territory and war actions. Obviously, she wasn’t going to be able to make it, she was in surgery, and Lotor wasn’t going to leave her. However, there were no rules in place for the age the representatives had to be. They just had to of been of Royal descent. 

Eden and Zion. 

 

“God, I HATE slicking my hair back like this.” Zion complained in the chair while on of the servants did his hair. 

“Why? Because it looks nice and not like a space wreck?” Eden combed back her hair herself. Zion had the most wild hair, it wasn’t straight up curly like Allura’s and Eden’s hair was, but it wasn’t quite as straight as Lotor’s either. It was this weird mix of just mess, going in every which direction. With it gelled back, it looked tame. He couldn’t wait to wash it out.

“Shut up. You’re just jealous that I get to wear a cape.” Zion claimed, pointing to his cape that hung on the wall. It had the Altean Galra alliance symbol on it, and the soft blue and gold matched his armor. 

“What does that have to do with anything?” Eden flashed him a petty look. 

“That means I’m superior.” He boasted, sticking his chin up in the air. The servant struggled to keep his head still.

“No you’re not.” She scoffed.

“I’m a guy.” He went on.

“Yeah?” 

“And you’re a girl.” 

“Yeah?” 

“So…”

“Yeah?” 

“I’m superior.” He stated. 

“ZION.” Eden slammed her brush down on the vanity, turning around to square up with her brother.

 

“Hello everybody! My name is Zion. I’m my papa’s son! That means that I’m-“ Zion began to say with a big smile into the mic before he saw that Eden facepalmed. He looked at her sourly. “Shut up, Eden you don’t even know how to sell a speech.” 

They stood on the stage of one of the Royal halls. Everyone sat at tables, some in confusion and some trying not to laugh at two tiny kids trying to give a speech. 

“Anyway, my annoying sister and I are here to discuss…… um…. wait why are y’all here again?” Zion continued. The king of Planet Puig called out. 

“Changes in material trade!” He smiled kindly, giving Zion a thumbs up. Zion liked the king of Puig. He was pretty cool. 

“Zion, give me the mic.” Eden took the mic from him. Zion bowed, while everyone clapped for him. “Okie. So like, what is the problem with it?” 

“We want to change the Luxite that comes from planet Wexlar. The planet forms the rock quite fast, however, we are running out.” Queen Quinaxine stood.

“Okie. So just like…. get it from somewhere else. What other planet has it?” Eden grinned kindly. “Remember to raise your hand and I’ll call on you, it’s not polite to call out, lady.” 

“I apologize.” Queen Quinaxine bowed her head, trying not to laugh. Everyone began to laugh, and Eden’s face washed over with confusion. She realized that they weren’t looking at her, but past her, and she turned around to see Zion dancing behind her. 

“Zion!” Eden snapped out, but Zion just laughed. Huge laughter erupted from the audience. Zion ran up and snatched the mic out of Eden’s hand. 

“Get off the stage, bih, it’s MY time!” He literally shoved her. Zion no. He then went on to sing, while his sister got off the stage, boiling hot. “There’s a place I know that’s tucked away a place where you and I can stay a place where we can laugh and play and have adventures everyday! Okie jk that’s the end of the song. Also doesn’t planet Puig have Luxite? Just trade the Luxite line with Puig and Welxar can be assigned to herbs! Problem solved folks.” 

“That… actually works.” The King of Puig rubbed his chin, thinking. So there was one problem solved. 

“Also, I have another announcement for you ladies and gentledudes tonight. My mom’s pregnant! Again! It’s like fuckin’ Full House in here!” 

The crowd all looked at each other shocked. “Another Galra heir?” 

“Zion! Did you-“ Eden knew Zion WAS NOT supposed to give that away. That was supposed to be a proper announcement at the next Royal Family presentation, not here, not now. “You weren’t supposed to give that away!” 

“I ain’t gel this hair back for nothin’ sis.” Zion cunningly smiled at her. Something was very odd about him. There was this glint in his eyes, like he was borderline insane. “I mean business.” 

That was when Eden went up on staged and grabbed the mic from him, shutting it off. “Coran, take over.” 

Oh yeah. About Coran. He attended everything diplomatic, he just kinda sat off in the corner somewhere talking to himself. He popped up, surprised, and nodded. “Yes, Princess.” 

It was then Eden grabbed Zion’s fist, who was cackling, and dragged him back behind the curtains and into the hall. “Zion, what was all of that?!” She looked really angry, the shadows of the lights pronouncing her most angry features, like the curves of her brows that she inherited from her father. 

“What do you mean?” 

“You told them all about Mama and Papa’s secret! You weren’t supposed to do that!” 

“Well excuse me, Princess.” He accented on the word Princess. “But I just gave them the information that they wanted. And Mama ain’t even sick! Her babies are sick.” 

“What?” 

“I heard them talking after I got in trouble. They’re having twins.” 

“Twins? That’s impossi-“ 

“Not impossible. And not only that- they were saying that the babies were gonna die! Now that I told the royal council, they’re not allowed to die.” Zion’s fingers tapped at his sides, his heterochromatic irises darted across at least everything in the hall except for Eden’s face when he said that. She knew nothing about it, and it didn’t seem like a lie. When Zion lied, his claws would be out. His claws were not out. He was biting his bottom lip. He was losing his mind. A three year old was losing his ever loving mind. 

“Zion, what do you mean the babies are gonna die?” She finally managed to ask, but they were both interrupted. The looked to their left, and saw their father walking towards them, stress on his face. 

“What are you two talking about?” 

“Zion’s saying that our sisters are in danger!” 

“Brothers! They’re going to be brothers!” 

“Well you don’t decide that, Stupidhead!” Eden shoved him.

“Shut up, you imbecile queen of brats!” Zion sneered, grabbing her arm.

“Both of you, enough!” Lotor raised his voice, snapping at both of them. “Zion, what did you just tell your sister.” 

“You and Mama were saying the babies were dying, and so I told everyone. Now they aren’t allowed to die.” 

“And it’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard!” Eden began to walk off. Lotor grabbed her hand, and told her to stay put. 

Lotor watched Eden’s expression change from being angry and fiery to being dull and sad. Zion bit his lip, looking down at the ground.

“Children, I apologize that I haven’t told you what has been going on. I admit that on my part, but I did not want you two to worry. Look at the both of you, you’re getting worked up. But… it is true. Your mother is going through the same thing my mother went through when she was carrying me. It’s when the baby gets blood clots and has a weak heart.” 

“I thought it was two babies…” Zion whispered.

“It is, Zion. You are correct.” 

“Wait, you had that too?” He questioned, tilting his head to the side.

“Yes. I was born very weak. Neither my mother or I was sought to make it. It’s a very mature subject and it’s a very very stressful thing to go through. I wasn’t too sure if you both would be able to handle something like it.” 

Eden and Zion looked at each other, but Eden smiled back at Lotor confidently. “Don’t worry. Me and Zion are partners in crime for life. We can handle anything.” 

———

 

The procedure was successful. Allura was kept in a healing pod for the remainder of that night, and Lotor literally slept right outside of it. He couldn’t imagine anything ever happening to his wife. The first day he met her was indirectly in battle on a poisonous gas planet. He shot at her lion and she froze his wing off. The next time they encountered each other was when she locked him in a cell in the castle’s lower center, and they argued quite a lot about which direction they should take the war, but man, the first time Lotor saw her face and got to know of her personality, he knew he wanted her to be his. He knew it was a good opportunity to get to a rift, but as they went on their first mission and he realized he was just as powerful as her, he wanted to keep her around just to be friends, just to have someone to talk to. He felt comfortable talking about his darkest memories, as she would always listen. It wasn’t long until they grew closer together and she got pregnant for the first time, and it was then when he saw his daughter and what they have created that it was the perfect time to marry her. Lotor watched over her day and night each time she was pregnant, every time she felt ill, every mood swing and emotional breakdowns that she has had. This, well, it was out of his control. No one had any clue about how to deal with a situation with so many variables that just don’t add up. Alteans and Galra Twins were rare. The blood clots and weak hearts was a mystery. Allura’s vital readings weren’t stabilizing. So Lotor woke up for the last time in the middle of that night and did something he never ever expected he would do. 

He called in Haggar.


	5. Honerva

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honerva comes by to begin helping Lotor and Allura with Allura’s failing pregnancy, however, and attack on Central Command proves that they may need to make some decisions for their children’s safety.

The next morning Zion and Eden woke up to see like twenty million more guards than usual around. They also saw Allura, who walked down the hall. She was completely healed from the surgery, and so were her babies, but they still showed problems. That would have to be dealt with later. 

“Mama!” Zion and Eden ran down the hall to catch up and hug her. She was so happy to see the both of them, they were like the light of her day. 

“So what are we doing today? Why are there so many people?” Eden rambled.

“I hate school. Can I stay home?” Zion pleaded. What a mood.

“Haggar is visiting. And yes, you can stay home if you’d like, today will be.. chaotic.” 

“YES! CHAOS!” Zion cheered, throwing his fists in the air. 

“No, chaos is bad, stupid.” Eden stuck her tongue out at Zion, and in return she earned a twisted look. 

“Chaos is good if it’s for a good price.” He pointed out, pointing to the center of his chest. “And I can help cause it.” Zion was always saying troubling things like this. Allura flinched, then reminded herself that it meant nothing other than him making a joke.

“It’s a figure of speech. What I mean is there will be a lot going on, and I need you two to behave. I do not want a repeat of what I heard from the other leaders last night.” Allura looked specifically at Zion, who nervously laughed. 

The family all caught Lotor’s eyes at the same time when he was walking out into the hallway, servants adjusting his cape. He looked nervous, and tried to give them all a reassuring look. Lotor knew Haggar was his mother now, yes, but for him it was still awkward to try and accept her as one, Haggar was the bad guy. Haggar was the one who he was scared of when he was a mere child. Haggar was the one who pissed him off as a teenager, the one who downplayed his ideas, the one who corrected his values. 

Behind him coming out of the other hall was no other than Haggar. 

Honerva. 

Her name was Honerva. And it still is Honerva. 

Honerva was getting even older, and wore her old skin proudly, showing that she was nothing other than Altean, a race shamed by the Galra for centuries. Her beautiful golden irises reflected off of the lights that lit the halls, and her seemingly warm smile added to a feel of correctness and nice demeanor. Her brittle white hair was tied up loosely into a bun, and she wore her same ol robe, only it was red and gold like the original Galra colors. When she spotted the children, she looked over to Lotor for approval. He weakly grinned and nodded his head, telling her to go ahead. That was the thing. Lotor didn’t fully trust her. She did her best to prove herself to him that she was only lost without a memory to give her the good that was always in her heart. Allura nudged Eden and Zion along, and they both walked up to greet her with side hugs. “You two are getting taller each time I get to see you.” She said softly, in the fragile old lady tone. “Beautiful just like your parents.” Lotor watched this happen, and so did Allura, and they both thought of only one thing they could give her. Forgiveness. 

“Wanna see my pet lizards?! Papa, can I show her my pet lizards?” Zion hopped up and down. 

“It depends if she wants to see them.” Lotor checked the time, it was still well into the early morning.

“I would love to.” Honerva ruffled his hair, and he proceeded to pull on her arm, guiding her down the hall towards his room. Eden stayed back with her parents. 

“I want to go to school now.” She stated blankly, leaving to go and change into her uniform. As she walked off, Allura saw that she was eying Honerva and Zion. 

——

 

“And this one is my favorite.” Zion took a blue lizard out of it’s cage and held it carefully in his hands. “His name is Hecker, and he’s really mean sometimes. He’ll like you, though. He likes old people.” 

Honerva knelt beside him. “Now I’m not that old, am I?” She chuckled lightly. Right now they were in a large closet connected to his room, full of cages of different species of lizards. She watched the lizard that was in his hands. It was a pretty little guy about the size of a water bottle, with huge black and red eyes and scales similar to those little hologram cards that change design when you angle them. Hecker was certainly an interesting name. He moved it towards her hands, and she held them out, and Zion gently put him in her hands.

Honerva stared at the lizard, and Zion stared up at her with admiration and fast blinking eyes. “Papa says you like lizards too.” 

“Yes.” She says. “I do.” 

“Wanna look at about 122 more?” He asked with an endearing crook at the corners of his mouth. 

—-

“Look at me, I’m Zion!” Eden held up on of her dolls (which was a purple klanmeural ((bear))). “I’m here to steal my grandmother from me!” She held up another doll, a pretty doll that was pretty old and ripped up. “I’m Haggar, and I can’t be trusted by anyone because I was evil!” She said in a creepy voice. “Zion, show me all of your lizards and we can build a lizard army and take over the universe!” 

So Eden has read history documents. 

And she knew just of the things Haggar has done. She was weary around her, and there was a ping of jealousy because Zion was the baby of the family and got the most attention from what was left of family friends and relatives. He was the one who was born and everyone started to ignore Eden. He was the one to entertain and do funny things and make people laugh. The fact that Zion literally took Haggar for himself bothered her, so now she was assuming way too many things, like how they were going to build a lizard army. 

Eden stopped playing with her dolls abruptly, and slammed them down on the pink bed sheets, scoffing to herself. She flopped back onto her back, staring up at the stars through the window on her ceiling. 

“Eden? You said you were going to school.” She heard her mother’s voice. There Allura was, in the doorway. 

“I changed my mind.” She responded with an edge of attitude. 

“But you love school. Okay, what’s wrong?” Allura walked in to sit down on the bed, brushing the stray hairs out of Eden’s forehead. “You stormed out of there earlier. Don’t you want to hang out with your brother?” 

“No. He’s stupid. He only cares about his lizards. He has like a hundred and twenty three of them, Mama.” 

“That many?” She almost raised her voice, catching herself. “I’m going to have to speak with him about that later. But seriously, what’s wrong?” 

Eden was silent, rolling over on her side to sulk. 

“Okay. Let me guess. Is it because we ran out of those blackberries that the paladins gave us?” 

Eden shook her head.

“Is it….” Allura leaned in. “Because you lost your favorite dress?” 

Eden shook her head again, taking her blanket into her palms and squeezing. 

“Ah, whatever could it be?” Allura was clearly acting. “Could it be because Honerva is visiting?” 

Eden nodded her head slowly. 

“Eden- you don’t have to worry about her. Even your father and I are feeling more comfortable around her. I know you are aware of what happened and what she did, but she’s a different person.” 

“That’s only part of it, Mama.” Eden sat up. “It’s that Zion always takes her from me whenever she visits. I never get to spend any time with her.” 

“Well why didn’t you just tag along?” 

“Because Zion’s lizards are weird. I don’t like looking at them.” 

“Yes, they are pretty weird, aren’t they?” Allura laughed. “But there is one thing you and Honerva have in common.” 

“What’s that?” Eden looked up with puppy eyes. Aw. 

Allura pointed to her head. “Both of you are creative. When we see her personality start to come back, and we read things of hers from before the war started, she’s so much like you. You both have passion to make people happy. And not only that, you have her red markings. I know no one from my family with those markings.” 

“What?” 

“Well, pink and blue are what most alteans have. However, some had red, purple, even green. Red symbolize someone who is creative, someone who wants to change everything. I think tonight after your father and I talk with her, you should show her your little experiments. I’m sure she’ll love them.” 

Eden thought for a minute. Maybe she would. 

———

“My wife is ill, and so are my children.” Lotor said while Allura, Honerva, and him all stood in her old lab. Honerva was looking around at all of her old things, the things she remembered pulling out when she began to regain her memories. 

“The Queen does seem ill, yes, but your children seemed fine, Lotor.” She gave him a perplexed glance.

“No. We’re expecting.” He clarified. 

“Again? You could at least calm down a little bit.” She laughed. “Birth control methods are not that expensive, my son.” 

Allura choked and Lotor’s eyes widened, surprised that something like that would ever come out of her mouth. It was true. Royal families never really had more than one or two children because of the complications of heirs and who would get what type of power and how many descendants would come out of their children’s generation in the future, now hopefully it would go to four, but that would only be if Honerva could help. 

“Well, we need to present to you a topic that is more… personal. Between you and I… and Father.” Lotor said carefully, finding it hard to word. “I know there were complications when you were carrying me. I want to know how you got me to survive.” 

“So the children are ill.” Honerva said quietly, looking down at the floor. Allura knew right then and there that she and Honerva had quite a lot in common. “There is only one way I would be able to explain the situation to you, and it will take all of our Altean alchemy combined into one. You do know how to use it, right?” 

“I’m still a bit new but Allura is more experienced.” Lotor thought for a moment. He would love to know what it was like and what happened again even though he’s seen it before, but he realized that this was all Allura. Allura was the one who was pregnant, after all. It would be easier to lessen the variables, the faster they figured it out the faster they could fix it. “I will wait back. I can trust you with my wife, correct?” 

“Of course, but, are you sure?” She asked. Lotor looked at Allura, who looked very concerned about what he was saying. Why was he backing down?

“Yes. This is a journey that only you two have to take.” He said firmly. 

And so it was decided. Allura was about to see personal matters from the other side. Who knows what was going to come up in Honerva’s memories. 

——-

Honerva and Allura stood in the middle of the pentagon, literally standing in quintessence diluted with water. Allura was nervous for whatever was about to happen. Was she going to get hurt? Were her unborn kids going to get hurt? Honerva took her hands into hers, and Allura felt just how delicate and beat up Honerva’s hands were. “Close your eyes and focus all of your energy into my hands. What I am doing is taking your into my mindscape, and there would hold the answers.” 

Allura did as asked, and nothing was happening. Her hands were heating up, and she waited patiently. It was at least five minutes until she heard Honerva take a breath in, and let go of her hands. When she opened her eyes, she saw nothing but a black void. Honerva looked horrified, her eyebrows curved upwards and her eyes wide. Her pupils were literal pinpoints. “What’s wrong?” Allura whispered urgently, when suddenly, she saw. A little girl, around the age of nine or ten, standing in the void. “This is it?”

“....Yes. These are my earliest memories.” Honerva said. It took Allura a second to realize that the little girl was Honerva herself. The red Altean markings. The adorable big eyes. Allura also realized that Honerva actually strongly resembled Zion with her face, and she always thought Zion looked like Lotor. She heard a voice speak, it was a woman’s voice. A lady appeared, standing in front of the little girl, she was short and painfully skinny, and had grey wavy hair just like the child. She looked like a mess, she had huge dark circles under her eyes, and looked a lot older than her voice sounded. A drug addict, for sure. 

“Don’t think you could be an alchemist!” The lady snapped. “You have too much of a pretty face, you could be a model and make a lot more money.” 

“We need to go further.” Honerva shook her head and refused to continue on with the memory. The memory disappeared before Allura’s eyes, and the next memory that came up was actually a happy one. Honerva was older, in her late teens. Her face was still young, yet she looked like an adult. She had an adoring smile plastered across her face, her eyes half closed with bashfulness. She wore an Altean ceremonial graduation outfit, holding an award in her hands and Allura recognized the gold ribbon on it, which was a certification for an alchemist. She heard applause, and suddenly a man appeared. Allura immediately gasped. It was Alfor, at the time Prince Alfor, who came up to Honerva and gave her a kiss on the cheek. 

Woah. 

Some good ol drama you could connect right there, dear reader. Yes, Honerva and Alfor were indeed a thing. 

Allura was in total shock. Honerva could have almost gotten married to him, and boy would have things been different. Honerva shook her head when she saw Allura’s reaction, laughing a little to herself. “Oh, it never worked out between he and I. He was more worried about political matters for me to care.” 

Allura burst out laughing, remembering just how much her father talked about politics. It was to the point where it annoyed her most days having to hear about it. 

The memory faded. Honerva and Allura stood there for awhile, and Honerva’s smile dropped to a frown. She was almost rocking back and forth on her heals like she was nervous. The next memory to come up was of her and good Zarkon looking stressed as hell, while Honerva was sitting in a chair with her face in her hands and Zarkon had a hand on her knee. “We can try again.” Zarkon said, his tone upset. Honerva could be seen shaking her head. “I refuse to lose another child. This pain is too hard to bear.” 

Honerva miscarried. Honerva was quite young in this memory, in fact, it looked like they were fresh out of marriage. Allura remembered Alfor telling her that after she was born he noticed a shift in Honerva’s personality. It would make sense if this was the reason why, because Honerva always wanted kids. She even said so like forty thousand times. She wanted a bunch of children, but only gave birth to one. 

Allura was quiet, feeling the pain of it. She couldn’t imagine losing Eden or Zion, or losing the twins because she’s prepared for it. She always wants more kids. It was every mother’s worst nightmare. 

So this is where the story actually starts. The memory transitioned, and Allura paid closer attention. Honerva looked a lot older, and this was still before the war started. She went from being one of many scientists in her lab to being by herself, working on experimenting the rift alone. She also looked extremely sick, the same kind of sick Allura was feeling the other day. 

“Here I was expecting your husband, your highness.” She said quietly, and they continued to watch as Zarkon and Alfor both walked into the lab, looking tense with each other. Soon tension built between Honerva and Alfor about the experiments going too far, when suddenly Alfor and Zarkon started yelling at each other. It was a whole mess, and in the midst of all of this, Honerva collapsed on the floor right after Alfor left. 

The next thing to come up was Zarkon kissing Honerva on the forehead as he carried her into the black lion. Right then, like a flash, they were in the rift. Zarkon held her up exposing her straight to the quintessence. 

“I was saving my child.” Honerva said. “And this was one of the most risky decisions we have ever faced.” 

Allura’s heart skipped when she saw dark matter swarm around Voltron and around Zarkon and Honerva. It was these same dark matter that played a role in the endgame attack at the very very end if the war when a new rift was opened and the realities were almost destroyed. Allura remembered this being the dark matter that infected Sendak, turning him in a ruthless delusional monster, and eventually taunting him to kill himself. This was the dark matter that turned Zarkon evil, but the real question was, did it infect Honerva?

The answer to that is no. 

The memories continued. 

The next one was of doctors surrounding some kind of table, and Allura knew it was a infancy operation table. There they saw Lotor screaming his head off as the doctors scanned and poked at him, literally taking his violet blood for testing. “What was wrong with him?” Allura asked, horrified. Honerva looked the same way. She took a minute to answer.

“He was had problems with his heart. He was terribly ill, his heart almost burst about five times.” She said, when finally, the mindscape faded away. Once again they were in the room, and they both stared at each other, waiting for someone to say something. Honerva took the opportunity. “You need to expose yourself to the purest quintessence possible. A rift.” 

“But you saw what happened with Zar-“ 

“You know fully well it was only the phantom matter that corrupted my husband long ago. With this, it is the only recommendation I could give you from my experience and there are some risks you must take.” 

Lotor brought up this idea before. They opened a rift once before the end of the war, and that ended in utter chaos. It resulted in literally everyone actually working together and not fighting each other in the will to survive. There was no victory or death. It was an awful battle, and the idea of trying to open another one half a decade later sounded crazy. They already got all the quintessence they needed from it. Why did she need to be exposed directly to it?

Allura dreaded this decision, it was so rash, but the bought of losing her children and having to tell Eden and Zion and announce it to the rest of the leaders now that they know seemed hard. 

There had to be another way. But they were running out of time.

Frantic footsteps ran into the room. “Mama! People are attacking us again!” Eden hollered, unable to stay still on her feet. 

Suddenly a loud boom struck Central Command, maligning everything rumble. 

“Go and get your brother and take him into our room!” Allura began to run, and Honerva knew exactly what she had to do. 

If only she still had her druids. 

No. Those days were over for her. She picked up Eden, teleporting both of them. 

Allura ran out into the hall and as soon as she did the alarms began to go off. Gaurds went running in every which direction, and Lotor could be seen speed walking down the hall. “Prepare my Sincline ship for battle immediately, and call in Team Voltron.” 

“Who is it?” Allura demanded from a nearby guard. He was sweating with nervousness. 

“Sendak.” 

“Oh, like always.” Allura rolled her eyes. “Protect my children. Lotor!” 

Lotor turned around, his eyebrows furrowed. “Please. You need to go with the kids.” 

“No, I may by ill but I will fight.” 

“Then stay by my side. I put an end to Sendak’s life tonight!” 

———

“Team Voltron, here to the rescue!” Lance shouted as he dove his lion into Central Command’s barriers. Sendak gathered quite a lot of rebels, and unleashed this attack in an attempt to put an end to Lotor. Sendak was unbeatable, he was trained by Zarkon like a son, and he had quite a voice as well. If anyone could rally a bunch of strong Galra, it was him. 

Meanwhile, Honerva sat with Zion and Eden inside one of the sitting rooms of central command, telling them to ignore the rumbling and explosions sounding throughout Central Command. They were in Central Command’s core, the safest place. Honerva decided that her magic was no where near as powerful as calming a couple of kids down. Eden sat on the couch with her arms crossed, and Zion paced around, carrying his lizard doll named Bo-Bo. “I swear I bet I can take them all down with one stroke of my sword!” 

“You know we can’t take down the single most powerful Galra criminal, Zi.” Eden said. 

“One day.” Honerva smiled. “You two could fight off anyone you want.” 

“One day I’ll be the strongest Galra-Altean there ever was.” Eden whispered. “I swear to it.” 

“Hey man, I say we put all our mothahfuckin’ differences aside. We can be a team together since you can run fast and I can lift heavy things.” Zion held out his hand to Eden, giving her a side smile. Honerva watched this and gushed over it. How fucking cute. Eden shook his hand. 

“Okay, twerp.” 

———-

The battle lasted for a full varga. Voltron came immediately, driving Sendak out of there, bringing him to custody. Lotor and Allura were both exhausted, and after the battle they ordered that their kids go to bed. However, they didn’t listen.

Lotor and Allura walked by each of their children’s rooms, discovering that neither of them were in their beds (or for Zion, somewhere on the floor because he hates sleeping in beds), and it was way past their bedtime. They looked at each other until Allura said “Ground them?” 

Lotor shook his head. “I have a feeling they’re up to their little projects.” 

They continued down the hall, until Lotor noticed something in one of the lounge areas. He tapped on Allura’s hand, letting her know to stop. Both of them stared into the room and saw that in one of the big armchairs, Honerva sat back with both Eden and Zion curled up in her lap, all three of them sleeping. Allura smiled softly, and Lotor walked in very quietly, picking a blanket up off one of the nearby couches. He walked over, carefully laying it down on them, it was a fact that Central Command was undeniably cold that night. And it was also a fact that he wanted his children to bond with Honerva in a way that he never got to. 

Honerva was the one to calm them down during the battle. Allura and Lotor could see faint tear stains on Eden’s cheeks, and Zion hair a huge mess (more than usual). 

The thing is that those kinds of invasions were normal and frequent, and they were all for the same reason- to take down Lotor and kill his entire bloodline. And they had a conversation about it before, about how their children were their first priority. If at any point any of these battles somehow were lost, then their children would surely be killed. 

They knew Eden and Zion weren’t safe here. They knew that there was just too much going on, and after that night, realizing that Eden cried and Zion was flipping out in some Zion-ish way they needed to send them away. They wanted them to be safe.

Team Voltron was hanging out in Central Command. Lotor and Allura looked at each other. 

“Discussion time?” 

“Yes.”


	6. Welcome to the Clubhouse de Paladins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eden and Zion are sent off with team Voltron so Lotor and Allura could continue with experiments and to keep them safe from the ever disappearing Sendak, who plans to do something rash. They begin to ponder about their Altean heritage.

“So you’re saying our plan actually worked?” Throk gulped down a wine like drink, slamming it down on his desk. “Because I say that was one quiznack of a failure we just pulled.” 

“No, our victory is only beginning. Look at it this way, my friend. Lotor knows we want his children dead, right?” Sendak put an arm around Throk, gesturing with his other hand. 

“Yeah?” 

“And what is Lotor clearly most protective over?” 

“His children.” 

“And who showed up to the party?” Sendak went on. “And who are great friends with Lotor, enlisted as his children’s godparents?” 

“That wretched Voltron team or whatever they like to call themselves.” 

“Exactly. Now if Lotor ever got tired of us attacking and getting away, he knows we’re destined to come back if his fleets don’t destroy us first! So what do you think a stingy person does with their most prized possessions when people try to steal them?” 

“.... he hides them. With Voltron.” Throk almost spat out his drink, being half drunk and overdramatic. 

“Ah yes, finally you understand. I must say, Central Command is impossible to break into when you’re the intruder. The only way we could get ahold of those disgusting brats is if we get them somewhere else. We keep them alive, my friend.” Sendak slapped his hand on Throk’s shoulder, walking away to pace the room. “And we use them as a bargaining tool to drive Lotor to us, and possibly his beautiful woman of a wife as well.” 

“I say we keep her as our possession, but she got knocked up again.” Throk continued to drink out of his glass until it was completely empty. “Prince Zion blurted out the family secret. We’d have to kill her to eliminate the bloodline completely.” 

“Dammit. You’re right.” Sendak shrugged. “Oh well, we’ve been imprisoned and on the run for too long because some family- in which aren’t even full galra- want to think they could suppress us. We will avenge Zarkon.” 

———

“What do you think Mama and Papa are doing?” Eden asked Zion while they practiced combat. Eden was a marksman, her secondary weapon of choice being a staff. Zion and Eden fought with staffs a lot, and Allura instructed them. She was supposed to instruct them today, but instead they had a private instructor. 

Zion responded with the ‘I don’t know’ sound, and continued to practice his positions. “Instructor Ezor, where’s our parents?” 

“They’re dealing with pregnant women business. Apparently your mother is so pregnant that it’s a problem. I just got the memo.” Ezor shrugged, and Eden and Zion both froze and turned towards her. 

“You just heard?” Zion gaped.

“Well all I know is that with all the battles-“ Ezor snapped at them to get back at their positioning exercises. “And all the invasions of people trying to kill y’all off, they want you gone.” Ezor was having a bad day.

“They want us gone?!” Zion exclaimed.

“Papa never wants to tell us any of his business.” Eden scrunched her nose in annoyance.

“Tell me about it. I dealt with him for ten decaphebes. Even left his stubborn nerd butt at one point. Zion, you’re holding the staff wrong.” 

“It’s more comfortable this way!” Zion yelled, half frustrated from the news he just got.

“It limits your mobility.” Ezor was obviously growing bored. 

“I’m a lefty.” 

“And very left brained. You argue so much just like your father, it’s not even funny.” 

“Oh, go and do your flips and quit telling me what to do. I’m a sword fighter.” He boasted pridefully. 

“You’re two.” Ezor was surprised at how someone so tiny was back talking her. 

“Almost three!” 

“Yeah, Yeah, Whatever kid. You can’t even do a backflip.” 

Zion dropped his staff as soon as she said that. He was about to prove her wrong, but Eden knew full well that Zion hadn’t mastered a backflip yet. Eden’s eyes widened. “Don’t do it, Zi-“ 

Zion launched himself to do a backflip, but failed and arched his back, falling on his chest and folding over himself. God dammit, Zion. He was good though. He stomped up to a stance, his cheeks puffed out in a pout. “That is what YOU look like doing a backflip, Ezor!” 

Suddenly the doors to the small arena slid open. It was two guards. Ezor looked over to them, her bored face not changing. “If you’re here to scold me about how I took Lotor’s boots for scientific reasons then tell him nobody saw anything.” 

“Emperor Lotor has ordered that the Prince and Princess be prepared for an export to Team Voltron for the next two movements.” One of the guards blandly stated. 

“What? Why?” Eden asked. 

“He did not give us any reasoning. He wants you two in the grand hall with all your vacational items in ten dobashes.” The other guard said. 

Eden and Zion both looked at each other in confusion, and even Ezor looked confused. “What did you do to your father now?” 

“We didn’t mean to do it!” Zion fell to his knees, pleading to the guards. “I know I broke one of his science logs! I didn’t mean to! I was just looking! And now my father is ordering my death!” 

“He’s ordering a vacation for us, stupid.” Eden sighed. “Let’s go. He probably just wants you to get out of central command so you’re not so paranoid about everything.” 

“Oh, I have betrayed the family name! I must be exiled for my actions!” Zion cried out more dramatically. 

“Zion, get off the floor!” Eden and Ezor both shouted at the same time. 

———

“We’re going on a trip, in our favorite rocket ship!” Zion sang, running down the hall with his arms out imitating an airplane. Eden followed behind miserably, dragging both of their suitcases behind her, having to stop every ten seconds to fix her grip on the handles. 

“Zi, please slow down.” She whined.

“No!” He held up his middle fingers.

“Then carry your own suitcase, Stupid!” 

“Maybe I will. Check this out, sis.” Zion jogged over to take his suitcase from her (full of snacks and like half his lizards I’m sure) and hopped on top of it, taking a remote out of his pocket. “I didn’t really test this out yet, but it’s similar to the engine that allows the sentries to run!” He pressed down on the button, and suddenly his suitcase began to growl and vibrate. Eden cocked her head to the side, confused as to what it was doing, until it hit her. Zion did this with a hoverboard before (which didn’t end well) but Eden still thought it looked like fun. Zion made it into a rocket.

“Wait, let me get on!” She let go of her suitcase, getting on as well. The suitcase then sped off down the hallway, going extremely fast. Their hair was going in every which direction, and the surrounding guards stared in awe. Typical of Lotor and Allura’s kids, of course. Zion began to cheer, flipping off the entire hall of guards as they raced towards the end of the hall that opened up to the grand arrival foyer. The floor change allowed it to go extra fast. 

Lotor and Allura saw them go by like this, and Allura sighed deeply. “Can I ground them now?” 

They watched as they disappeared behind the corner, then they heard a bunch of thumping and a huge crash. Soon, crying. Oh god. Lotor sped up and practically ran while Allura continued to walk (she was sick don’t judge her) and Allura saw Lotor’s face change from worry to utter astonishment. “Thank you, Lance.” He said. When Allura made it around the corner to see, she saw Zion in a full on split with a dramatic finish while quietly sobbing to himself, like he tried to play the fall off but was failing to. Eden was in Lance’s arms, and she was the one who was wailing loudly. 

“I wanna do that again!” She sobbed. 

What. 

“Can I trust you with my children?” Lotor asked, talking Allura’s arm. They both walked down the steps towards the paladins, who were all lined up and in their uniforms. Zion wrapped his arms around on of Keith’s knees, and Eden took Hunk and Lance’s hands, sniffling her tears away. 

“I think we’ll be okay with them.” Shiro smiled humbly, patting Zion’s head. 

“Yeah, look at how much these two royal buttheads grew! I bet they can handle us.” Keith scooped Zion up and held him on his side. Okay. So Zion favored Keith the most, and Keith always saw Zion like the little brother he never had. Keith felt that he was always able to connect to Zion on a conversational level despite him being like two decades younger than him, as they both liked talking about how annoying Lance was (in which Lance and Keith are engaged) and the outdoors. Zion and Keith had the same inner core personality. Keith’s Scorpio zodiac had him as mysterious and often angry, and Zion’s Aries zodiac had him as immature and a fireball that just couldn’t be put out, but it was just their boldness that had them in an unbreakable bond that would last forever. 

“Are you implying that they’re going to be going on missions with you?” Allura asked faintly. Lotor squeezed her hand and kissed her head. His wife needed to go back to bed. He hated to say goodbye to his kids so fast, but his mother was already working on some ideas for treatments that may help Allura. 

“Yes, of course, that is only to your consent.” Shiro said. 

“Well, I think Eden could handle them well. Zion, well, you’re going to have to take caution.” Lotor chuckled, and Zion stuck his tongue out. 

“I can behave!” He whined. 

“Zion, this is a test for you.” Allura said. “It’s time that you learn how to be a big kid.” 

“He can’t even get up onto his bed.” Eden joked, and the paladins all laughed. Zion puffed out his cheeks. 

“I’M THE MAN.” He yelled. 

“Okay, The Man, it’s time for farewell.” Lotor held out his arms, and Eden and Zion ran up the steps to get hugs from their parents. 

“No fighting.” Allura kissed their heads. 

“And no dangerous experiments.” Lotor did the same. 

So it was decided. Lotor and Allura told team Voltron that while they were watching them, they needed to send them on very easy and exploratory missions and be extra alert on Sendak’s whereabouts. They sent them out for several reasons, Allura was sick, Central Command needed upgraded, and they needed their kids to have learning experiences. They loaded onto Voltron, and off they went towards planet Olkarion where the Clubhouse de Paladins would be their home for the next… well, you’ll see.

———

 

Eden rolled him both of their suitcases (Zion paid her to) and they walked through the automatic doors to the grand foyer of the Clubhouse. The Clubhouse has several floors, and housed each of the lions and included all the specially designed rooms that each of the paladins created. The designs showed all of the contrasting personalities and was honestly that most fantasy 4 year old dream house you could imagine. It had water slides, it had fireman poles, it had elevators and rope swings and zip lines. 

Eden and Zion had never been in the Clubhouse, so it was time for a tour. The first floor was the basic things like a living room and kitchen, as well as a library and record room, a music room, a recording studio, and a few standard guest rooms, also a lab with super secret things. 

It wasn’t until they got to the second floor that the kids got interested. The second floor has the most bizarre rooms, and the first one they went in was a room called ‘Lance’s hall of fame’ that was literally just Lance’s face. The floor was all his face. The walls were all his face, and off towards the corner was a picture of Keith with ‘mullet’ written to the side. Zion started crying when he saw this room. He hated Lance. 

The next room had a regular door on it. Nailed to it was a crappy little frame that said ‘yeet yeet mothertoaster’. Eden opened the door. “Wha-“. Inside was a singular table with a spotlight on it, a piece of toast just sitting in the middle in a bowl. There was a detailed ketchup sketch of Vladimir Putin’s face on it, and Eden claimed that she wanted to ‘Consume the USSR’

The next room had nothing but succulents and cacti, playing classy jazz elevator music. Eden said it oddly calmed her. Zion tried to eat one of the cacti. 

They came up to a room at the end of the hall. Zion cocked his head to the side. “E...exit.” He sounded out, still new to the human language. He opened the door, but Lance quickly shut it on him. 

“No, lil bro. Can’t go in there. It’s dangerous.” 

“Oh no, lil bro; can’t go in there it’s dAnGeRoUs.” Zion repeated in a mocking tone. “Yeah, fuck off and step aside partner, this room looks interesting.” He opened the door again. He took a step in, but realized his foot didn’t come down on any solid ground. He gasped, seeing a 30 foot drop into a pit of partying alligators. He fell, but the paladins yelled out and Eden caught onto his foot, and Hunk had to pull him up. Zion looked down, his wild hair hanging down around his face. When Hunk pulled him up, Keith shut the door and this time locked it.

“Are you okay?” Keith asked urgently.

“Those are some big ass lizards.” Zion whispered, his eyes shot wide in astonishment.

They went through several more pointless rooms like this, and half of them were off limits. Eden and Zion swore to each other that they were going to go and explore later while the others were asleep because they were curious, the curiosity was killing them. The next floor was more normal, which was what they named the ‘shut yo mouth so everyone can sleep’ floor. It included all of their bedrooms, and custom guest rooms. That’s where Eden and Zion were going to sleep. 

In the guest rooms were huge beds with led lights, completed with closets that designed and crafted clothes to anyone’s liking and bathrooms with air bath tubs. They looked clean and futuristic with a monochromatic color scheme. The guest rooms were specially decorated with huge windows, but these windows could also be TVs. Zion and Eden stood one of the rooms together while Hunk and Pidge did a demonstration on how their technology worked. They designed the rooms themselves to make any guest feel at home as possible. They handed Eden the remote. “Now click the arrows, and it’ll change the landscape.” 

Eden went through landscapes of space, Earth, mythical forests and vast oceans, when finally… they hit one landscape that gave both Eden and Zion a strange feel. 

“What is this….?” Zion went up to touch the screen, in which his hand fell through. It was a hologram, but it still looked to real. There was a huge city, and it was magical and metallic white. There were ships everywhere, and wind blowing through people’s hair. They looked closer. They had pointed ears and markings on their cheekbones. 

“That’s Altea. We took pictures and videos from the Castleship and compiled it into this. We thought of your mother when we made this-“ Hunk explained before he was cut off.

“It’s amazing!” Eden observed in awe. “That’s our family!” 

“Too bad it’s all gone…” Zion crossed his arms, staring down at the floor. Allura and Lotor told the stories of alteans and their amazing heritage and scientific achievements, telling Eden and Zion that they were the only present time generation of alteans in the entire universe. They told Eden and Zion that it was their job to carry on the history and legend of Altea, and no matter who they had kids with, there was a chance that the mark of the chosen could get passed down. Eden and Zion had a huge mental capacity, but even that fact astonished them. They all continued to stare at it until Eden turned the remote off, and the screen turned back into the windows that showed the view of the forests of Olkarion. It was too quiet. The paladins felt bad for the alteans. There were 7 billion other humans, and there were about 10 billion galra, but alteans? A grand total of six. 

“Come on. We gotta start our missions.” Pidge smiled reassuringly at the children. 

———-

“Okay you two, this is a mission of suspicious intel. We must retrieve it and erase the databases off of the computers. Got it?” Pidge said. “So no more talking.” 

They all crept down the halls of a Galra cruiser, one owned by some of the commanders. However, this sector of soldiers have been pulling some suspicious stuff, like muting and deleting their recorded messages, perhaps trying to cover something up. Pidge’s job right now was to get the intel and analyze it so they could shut down the suspicious activity. Of course Eden and Zion had to tag along, there were five separate missions and five paladins, who was going to watch them? Seeing that Pidge’s mission was the easiest, it was ideal they went with her. 

She could tell both of them were having a bad day. They would argue every minute they got to, and Pidge knew it was because their parents had to get them away from Central Command. They were missing school (which they actually liked school) and they were already homesick. 

Eden noticed Zion’s eyes were starting to well up, and she grew concerned. His face would turn a deep purple whenever they were sad tears, and Eden never liked to see Zion genuinely sad. Yes she said things to make him angry, but sad? No. “Zion?” She whispered, and they both stopped walking. Zion’s eyebrows curved and his lip began to quiver. Oh no. Suddenly, his fists balled up and he clenched his palms, stomping his foot down. 

“I WANT MY BO-BO.” He yelled. “WHERE THE FUCK IS HE.” Eden was startled, realizing it was one of his infamous fits. Bo-bo was his lizard doll, one that used to be Lotor’s. He hated being without it in stressful situations. 

Pidge turned around, hearing that he just dropped a big ol F bomb. She wasn’t surprised. Zion picked that one up from herself and Lance. It was weird hearing a toddler say it, but hey, he’s the kid of someone with a big ass brain. What was she supposed to expect? She watched as they went onto argue. 

“You’re being a brat!” Eden snapped. 

“Shut up, you feminist!” Zion shot back, literally throwing himself onto the floor. Thank god the cruiser was empty. 

“What? Who said I’m-“ Eden choked, (oh she’s definitely a future feminist) 

“You’re a girl, you meanie!” 

Damn Zion just unleashed the sexism. 

Okay, Pidge wasn’t surprised at how quickly the kids’ moods turned. They were well behaved when they came to the Clubhouse, but as the day went on, they got more tired. Pidge knew both of their parents could be like this. It was inevitable. However, Zion continued to act up more than Eden did. That would need to be addressed.

———-

That night Zion seemed to tire himself out. And so did Eden. Eden was passed out on the couch on Lance’s chest and Zion was sitting in a chair off in the corner, where they put up a sign that said ‘The Thinking Corner’. 

“Here’s your juice.” Matt handed Zion a juice box. It was a brand that Matt created himself called ‘Respect Women’. He was very proud of it, and he made about 5000 Gac a week. The juice was 10/10. 

“No.” Zion refused it, clutching his Bo-bo. 

“Drink the goddamn juice. You didn’t even eat dinner. And you obviously had way too many mean potions today.” Matt argued. Zion sighed, rolling his eyes.

“Fine.” He yanked it from Matt’s hands. Matt and Zion weren’t on good terms, Zion wasn’t happy with Matt stealing his cornchips earlier that day and god back at him by rewiring his shower and almost burning Matt’s skin off. Savage child. 

Zion fell asleep on the timeout chair that night, and Keith picked him up and slept next to Lance and Eden on the couch, Zion in his arms. 

Hopefully things were this calm at Central Command.


	7. Zion’s dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor realizes he may have a power that could be vital to stop his wife’s miscarriaging, and Zion has a very odd dream about a very familiar family member that no one is allowed to speak of. Allura wants to see her children again.

“I’m gonna win this one for sure.” Keith said, focusing as hard as he could on the screen. Keith and Zion were playing GameCube, an ancient artifact of nostalgia. It came from the era known as the Blockbuster era, and ancient sire where cultures would gather together for a weekly ritual every Friday night called ‘Movie night’.

Nah I’m just fuckin with ya, dear reader this is only like a hundred years in the future.

“Kiss my galtean ass, Keith!” Zion got a star man, and the star man music blared from the speakers as he power-uped.

“Keith?” They heard a voice behind them, not turning away from the tv. It was Shiro. “I thought I told you to get ready for a meeting with Kolivan.” Keith wasn’t even dressed. He didn’t even have a shirt on. His undercut hairstyle was a complete wreck, and his face was just covered in scruff.

“Yeah, yeah. Let me just finish this round.” Keith dissed Shiro off, but Shiro raised his voice.

“You said that two hours ago!”

“Two hours ago, my ass.” Zion raised a middle finger, not taking his eyes off the screen.

“I’m telling you parents you said that.” Shiro crosses his arms. Oh my god.

“Go ahead. The future is now, old man!” He exclaimed.

  
\-------

  
“What I am going to try first is to transfer a small amount of quintessence into you, and through your bloodstream to your children. This will tell us if there will actually be any effect, and the quintessence is directly from the rift you first opened at the end of the war.” Honerva explained, using her magic to levitate a small penny size drop of quintessence in her palm. Honerva has learned to use her abilities as healing energies, not harmful ones. “It is most pure.”

“So this is just showing us if the idea is a worthwhile chance?” Lotor said. He sat beside Allura on the bed, who was completely out.

“Yes.” She claimed.

Allura has become extremely weak, and the vitality of the babies lowered. The babies were pretty much taking all of the energy out of Allura, and she actually collapsed on the floor that morning. Lotor didn’t react well. He ordered that everyone was to leave Central Command and that no one was to bother them, and he spent quite a bit of time actually shouting at everyone. It was Lotor’s family who triggered his strongest emotions, since he cared about his family members the deepest since they were the only real family he’s had. Allura, Eden, Zion, his hopefully future twins (which they figured out was one boy and one girl) and if she could prove herself fully trustworthy, Honerva. The only person in the entire universe that topped Lotor’s knowledge and intellect was Honerva, his mother. She was able to do things and discover things that Lotor was unable to unlock himself. He would owe his whole family to Honerva if she could save Allura.

Lotor watched as Honerva lay her hand against Allura’s face, and Lotor’s sleeping wife’s altean marks began to glow as the quintessence absorbed itself into her forehead. She looked so beautiful, her white hair in wisps around her lightly parted lips and in a halo around her head. Lotor watched carefully, watching his mother’s every move.

Allura shot awake, gasping and sitting up. Honerva moved her hands away and Lotor reached out to grab Allura’s hands. “What is it?” He asked quietly.

“There are- there are things- things-“ She stuttered, her irises darting back and forth, and she yanked her hands away and grabbed onto Lotor’s arms, trying to look into his eyes, failing to. “I saw-“

“What?” Lotor looked over at Honerva, getting upset. She shook her head, putting a hand on Allura’s cheek, turning her towards her.

“My child, listen.” She said sternly. “You will be fine. Those things you saw are nothing but your imagination and fragments of your mind.”

“What is she seeing? I command you to tell me what my wife is seeing!” Lotor raised his voice, flipping the literal fuck out. Honerva bit her lip.

“She is seeing her father.”

“What?! What does King Alfor have to do with any of this?”

“I- I-“ Allura was shaking.

“The quintessence triggered a reaction of visions. My visions. We must get her to rest.” Honerva slowly pushed Allura back to a laying position, and Lotor’s eyebrows furrowed in rage.

“I demand that you reverse this- this- you used your witchdoing on her!” Lotor said, putting a hand on Allura’s cheek. Lotor saw his hand began to glow, and he pulled it away, gasping. Honerva’s face was grim with sadness, like she had failed, but after seeing Lotor’s hand literally light tf up her jaw dropped in awe.

“My son, do not take your hand away. Rest your hand on the face of your love.” She urged. Allura closed her eyes, small sounds coming from within her still parted lips. “You are right, I am too corrupted to do this correctly. But my son, you possess something incredible…”

Lotor looked down at his hand, then at his mother, then at Allura’s rapid breathing. He laid his hand down on her cheek, and he felt incredible amounts of energy enter his hand. He has never experienced this before. It was far from witchcraft, it was pure Altean alchemy, and he was shocked. He knew he was a chosen Altean. He didn’t know just how much power he possessed.

He knew what this was. It was healing. The only known Altean to possess this power was King Alfor himself. Lotor watched as his hand glew and a small portion of Allura’s cheek was illuminating the light. He looked at his mother, then at Allura who’s breath was slowing and eyes were opening. “You…” she murmured before she drifted off into sleep.

  
———-

  
The day went by fast, as everyone basically kinda chilled out. The only person with a mission to do was Shiro.

Later along the lines past bedtime, Eden and Zion hung out in Eden’s room, playing cards. “Ever think of when Mama and Papa are going to come for us? I’m homesick. And I left like 102 lizards there and I’m not sure if the servants are feeding them.”

“They said that Mama is still sick. We can try and videocall Papa?” Eden was bored, a palm holding up her face.

“Can we!” Zion hopped up, running over to grab the remote to the video walls. “I’m sure we can through this thing- we just have to reconfigure it!”

“Oh please, like we can reconfigure an entire scenery-“

‘Contacting Central Command Now.’ A mechanical voice sounded.

“Oh my god.” Eden threw down her cards, getting up.

Coran popped up on the screen. “Count Coran from Central Command here, What May I- oh! Children!” He leaned into the screen.

“Hi Coran!” Eden and Zion both waved. “Can we talk to Papa? We know Mama’s sick.”

“Oh yes, certainly, I’ll relay the message.” Coran turned around. “LOTOR YOUR KIDS WANT TO TALK TO YOU AND YOU’RE LIKE TWENTY FEET AWAY SO I’M NOT ACTUALLY RELAYING THE MESSAGE!”

Eden and Zion looked at each other, gawking. Okay then. They heard fast footsteps. “My children?” They heard their father’s voice. Lotor literally pushed Coran’s rolling chair away. “Look at you two! Growing taller already.”

“Papa, it’s been two days.” Zion giggled.

“I plan to visit next movement. Your mother and your future brother and sister are doing quite well, however, there may be complications when the time actually comes.” Lotor said excitedly, with an edge of worry. “You two understand, right?”

“Yeah that means when they pop out the oven they may be uncooked asf.” Zion said. Eden rolled her eyes. Lotor was no longer surprised of his son’s way of language. “So is Mama coming too?”

“Yes, Mama is coming too. We can’t miss out on someone’s third birthday next week.”

“HOLY SHIT MY BIRTHDAY IS IN A WEEK.” Zion randomly punched Eden, earning a shove back.

“Papa, I order that we ship this rabies-infested individual OUT.” Eden shouted, rubbing her arm.

“Okay, What did I say about no fighting?” Their father raised an eyebrow.

“Shit fucking dammit I forgot.” Zion stomped.

“I do not understand half of your words, Zi.”

“It’s called… uh… delivering my expression with extra emphasis?” The boy scratched the back of his neck.

“He means cussing.” Eden was just about 1000000.8% done.

“Well I gotta let you two go. I have a meeting to attend, can I trust you to continue on good behavior?”

“No.” Zion said.

“Alright. I love you both!” Lotor waved kindly.

So fuckin pure.

  
This time everyone slept in their rooms, and Zion was messing around with the 4D scenery screen. “Wow it’s like a whole ass volcano.” He said to himself when he changed the scene to a boiling hot volcano about to erupt. “Damn that it almost as hot as I.”

Zion no.

Zion quit flipping the channels when he landed on the Altea one, watching the community walk. If only it were real, he could experience it. He was beginning to have a concept of it all, that he was Altean. In fact, he was 75 percent Altean. It showed in his eyes, his markings, his hair. He was unmistakenly Galra because both he and Eden inherited their father’s skin tone, and he was also extremely powerful like one, and he was also very outspoken and headstrong like one. He was always ready for battle, whether it be a scary bug or any other Galra child at school.

He wondered what it would be like to live on a solid planet. He knew the history of Daibazaal as well, but he longed for Altea. He felt a weird feeling whenever he looked at it.

“I bet they have some good ass food there.” He yawned, tucking himself into the pile of blankets he set up on the floor. He missed when his mother and father would come in and kiss him goodnight, well, it’s been one night, but still. He looked up at the ceiling, which had planets painted onto it, and he closed his eyes and drifted off quickly.

  
_Come here, my child._

_Zion was in a dreamscape, and he heard a voice that sounded dark and untrustworthy. He stood on a bridge in some kind of void, however, when he turned he saw a light. The light illuminated a large jail cell with a figure sitting inside. He heard the soft rattling of chains._

_“What in the flipping fuck?” He yelled out into the void. Two purple glowing eyes appeared, and he felt himself begin to walk towards them._

_“I have important advice to give to you. You could save yourself from your father’s lies.” The dark voice said. Zion continued to walk forward until out of nowhere the figure jumped out, causing his heart to lurch. He screamed but then stopped abruptly. He stopped walking as him and the figure stared at each other silently. He studied the figure’s face, which was a grayish purple, skin old and chapped- completed with a large scar running down the left side of his face. Zion gasped, taking a couple of steps back._

_“Who are you?” He asked, hearing his voice echo for what seemed like hundreds of times._

_“I am your family.”_

_Zion analyzed the man some more. He had to of been at least 8-9 feet tall, which was drastic compared to Zion’s 3 and a half foot height. It then struck him, and he began to back up even more. “Papa said you are not family! You’re an enemy!”_

_“Surely I am not. Your father has been lying to you this entire time. Look at yourself, Prince Zion. You’re a small being, but you do not have to be weak.” Zarkon went on to say. “You’re always in your sister’s shadows.”_

_Zion listened intently. Zarkon was right. Zion always felt as if he was included or as talented as his sister was, which created jealousy among the two of them._

_“You were born strong and gifted. You have all of the strength that a Galra has, and yet she lags behind in that strength. You have the potential to be a brute fighter. She never actually appreciated you. She saw you as a threat.”_

_“How does she see me as a threat?” Zion’s voice began to get shaky with fear, and he looked down at his feet._

_“You are her number one threat to the throne.”_

_“Papa said not to care about the throne! We don’t have to worry about some shit ass throne for years!”_

_“And when that time comes, what will you do? She would want you dead. She wants you dead.” Zarkon began to raise his voice._

_“But-“_

_“You must take the throne early, when you are old enough. You must get rid of your family when you are ready.” Zarkon boomed like a commander, and Zion at this point was shaking and crying. He turned around, running away from the cell._

  
Zion shot up, breathing heavily and looking across the room frantically. He was back in the guest room, and the screen was now black. Only white noise was heard. He took no time to get up and grab his blanket, dragging it out behind him and out into the hall. He walked down it slowly, his feet asleep and his Bo-Bo in hand, and tried to forget what he just dreamed about. After much effort he gave up, and came up to Eden’s door, opening it. “Eden?” He called into the room, and saw that Eden was fully asleep and curled up into the corner of her bed. He backed away, letting the door close. He looked at the panel beside it, and pressed his finger to it, literally locking it from the outside.

He continued down the hall to Keith and Lance’s room, opening the door. They were both asleep, and he walked in quietly and trudged across the room towards them. He didn’t care if he hated Lance, he crawled up onto the bed and onto Keith’s chest, laying his head down in the crook of Keith’s neck and closing his eyes again. The last thing he felt was Keith putting his hand onto his back, rubbing circles across his shoulder blades as comfort.

  
Queen Allura shot awake, gasping heavily. Lotor sat up, in which he was unable to sleep, and clasped her hand. “What’s wrong?”

“You- you never told me!” She straight up slapped her husband, pulling him back to give him a kiss on his cheek. “You have the powers of Oriande’s healing!”

“I’m afraid so.” He rubbed his cheek. Allura has some very strong slaps.

“Why are you afraid?”

“Because I could’ve figured it out sooner. I guess the only time that really happened before was when I was a child, but in that case I thought was just dreaming.”

“The kids- the kids, are they good?!” Allura rambled, beginning to flip out just like the morning before.

“Eden and Zion are fine.” Lotor trailed a thumb down her cheek.

“I need them back home.” She held his hand to her face.

“My dearest, there have been two attacks today while you were sleeping. We must not bring them back yet. I ordered team Voltron to stay away, but I’m created a plan to wipe out Sendak and his followers for good.”

“I just don’t feel okay having them so far away. I want to listen to our daughter sing to herself. I want to hear my son make obnoxious Earth jokes that I have yet to fully understand.”

“They’re having learning opportunities with the paladins. Lance reported that Zion hadn’t bit him at all today.” He laughed lightly.

“I suppose that’s record for him.” Allura didn’t smile.

“And Hunk reported that Eden finally learned how to paint her own nails. It’s the little things that-“

“It’s the little things that we’re missing out on. We’re visiting them tomorrow. And that is that.” Allura stated solidly. Lotor’s face dropped. He was fearful of that, he knew she wasn’t even ready to walk yet. He didn’t want to leave Central Command unattended so unexpectedly.

But his wife was right. They needed to see their children.

 

 

 


	8. Why worry?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor ponders, and sends Honerva to visit the kids at the Clubhouse. Eden has issues wondering about her self image, which brings her to a decision. Pidge talks to her.

“Lotor, you must practice your healing abilities, and that will take time. Until they are good, they have little effect.” Honerva explained. “But it is a very good thing that we discovered that you have them, since now we can avoid the dangerous quest of exposing your wife to the rift.” 

“That’s good to hear.” Lotor sighed, then yawned. They stood out in the corridor of the royal family hall, the hall where their bedrooms were all at. Lotor and Honerva talked the whole night together while Allura was resting. He told her that he and his wife were going to try and visit their kids tomorrow, but they all knew it just wasn’t a good idea. Honerva recommended that Allura was not to leave her bed at all, as even walking could put her and her unborn children in danger. “I have to ask you of a favor.” 

“Yes?” 

“If we do not make it out tomorrow, will you visit my children just to see that they are alright and well? I trust the paladins with my life but.. they need family there with them. It is only the three of us now.” 

“It would be my honor to.” Honerva bowed her head. “You need to rest. You have not slept well in a week.” 

“I know. Thank you, Mom.” 

 

Lotor laid down in the bed next to Allura, who was sound asleep on her side, her hand tucked under her cheek. What an amazing wife he had. She was sacrificing so so much, they both really wanted more kids. But after this happening, they both agreed that four children would be enough. It was odd for them, since neither of them had any siblings whatsoever. They had gotten used to Zion and Eden’s fights, Lance was the one to reassure them that the fighting was normal. Now there was going to be even more fighting. 

Lotor knew he wanted to be a father. It was always his dream to be this wonderful father to children in which he wouldn’t care what they looked like. His children in now way looked full Galra, but he loved them both endlessly. He wanted kids as closure for himself since he never really had parents growing up. One was a tyrant who’s child was the last thing on his mind, and the other one was believed to be dead for so long. He wanted to prove to everyone that you could have a soft heart and be a very rash fighter at the same time. There was nothing wrong with caring for the lives of others. However, he felt as if he let his children down by just dropping them off with the paladins just so he could focus more. 

Allura was his partner in crime for sure. 

When he first met her, he saw her potential, her strength, her beauty. He saw a woman who he wanted to protect and defend and work alongside with for the rest of his very very very very long life. He’s seen her kill a person. He’s watched her battle entire fleets on her own. Heck, their very first encounter in Thayserix was him getting his butt kicked by her. But he never imagined that bringing a child, let alone two, into the world would be something so courageous. He never imagined he could ever do something like that himself, you’re literally forming an entire life, an entire lifetime of memories, an entire person, mind body and soul- inside of you. She was doing that double, and did it twice before. 

Lotor didn’t know what he was going to do. Allura was the only person he could give into, and if she insisted on going to see their kids the next day Lotor knew something bad was bound to happen. 

———

“Lay on the floor, breathe it in deep…” Eden sang quietly to herself, pulling on an Altean ballet slipper. Altean arts were very similar to our arts here on Earth, and Eden was very strong when it came to anything that came to performance. “Don’t speak don’t say a word..” She stood up, staring out into the studio. The studio was huge, and it was on the top floor of the Clubhouse. It was originally Lance’s room where he would do his dancing but he let Eden use it. Eden stared at her reflection in the wall mirrors. Instead of dancing, she found herself walking up closely to the mirror. Eden looked a lot like her mother, but there were subtle differences. All her pigmentation was Lotor’s. She wondered, did she have to look so much like her parents? I mean, she knew neither of them were even close to ugly, and she knew that was just how it was going to be. She was their child, but recently she learned about recessive traits and how some children look like neither of their parents. Eden wanted that. She wanted to be her own person. 

She wanted her mother here with her. Right now she would be reassuring her that she was her own person and that she wasn’t a copy of anyone. But then Eden noticed the one thing that kept her looking like her parents for sure.

The long hair. 

There was no dancing that day like she planned. She had a different motive. 

She pulled off her ballet slippers and ran out of the room, her tights ripping on the left foot after getting caught on a panel of flooring. She didn’t care. She went past Hunk and Hunk flashed her a perplexed look. “Hey, what’s the hurry?” 

“Just gotta change what I look like!”

“Wait? What? Why are you trying to-“ 

“I’m sorry, Uncle Hunk! I gotta do this!” Eden continued down the hall.

Hunk stood there, contemplating. He knew a lot of people were self conscious about the way they looked but Eden was four, why would she be worrying this early? Eden was gorgeous. Tf? He didn’t really know how to handle it, she wasn’t his child. So he let her. 

——-

“Okay, she what?” Pidge tied her hair up while Hunk spoke to her. 

“I don’t know what she’s thinking. Maybe because she’s a Leo? Leo’s are self conscious?” 

“Zodiacs are just a weird hoax, Hunk. You can’t just base her off of that. Her and Lance are practically opposites and he’s a Leo.” 

“But he’s a July Leo!” 

“What? Hunk, you’re not making any sense.” Pidge sighed, pinching the spot between her forehead. “Okay, look. Maybe she just wants a change? As long as she’s not performing plastic surgery on herself in which I highly doubt, I don’t think it’s too much of an issue.” 

“It just makes me sad.” 

“Well Honerva’s coming later. Maybe she can talk to her, but I don’t know if we should just leave it alone or not. We’re just the babysitters.” 

“But we’re the godparents, are you forgetting that?” Hunk crossed his arms, getting impatient.

Pidge nodded. “I guess you’re right. I’ll talk to her.” Pidge walked off. She saw Eden lock herself into her room. She went and stepped on the elevator, thinking. Pidge used to be very self conscious about a lot of things, mostly her intelligence. At one point she was self conscious about her nose. She never really knew why, she had a small nose. “That child must be out of her mind if she thinks there’s something wrong with her!” She whispered to herself while she waited. “She literally is the spawn of two impossibly attractive people!” She continued to think of what it could possible be. Eden had pretty eyes. She had her mother’s pretty eye shape and her father’s cool looking eyes. She had gorgeous hair. She was tall, but not too tall. She was an athletic prodigy and a genius. 

Pidge realized she herself was a very pretty girl. She began to ask herself. “Why would anything even think of themselves like that? We all have our own selves, how could we compare things that are different and try to compete them? It’s what makes us unique?” She began to ramble. She questioned why she herself stared at herself in the mirror and thought something was wrong. She was not upset with Eden. Eden was a perfectly normal little girl experiencing perfectly normal things.

When she got off the elevator and walked up to Eden’s door, she quietly knocked. She waited, then she heard “Go away, I’m busy.” 

“Can I help you with whatever you’re busy with?” 

“Um- it’s secret.” 

“Any secret is safe with me.” 

There was a moment of silence, then Pidge heard footsteps. The door opened. She looked down at the four year old, who’s hair was now a good foot shorter. “What’s this?” Pidge was very relieved. It was just a self haircut.

“Um. It’s-“ 

“Can I come in?” Pidge smiled kindly, and Eden nodded, letting her in. Pidge saw that Eden’s guest room now had all of her stuff all over the place, like toys and her gun and a crap ton of outfits. She also saw that on the vanity there was all of her curly hair, just sitting there with a knife. 

Of course the Galra princess would cut her hair with a knife. 

“Hey, Eden?” 

“Yeah?” Eden turned, gazing at Pidge with nervous uncertainty. Pidge studied Eden’s hair. It was short, reaching her lower neck in a cute bob. It was bouncy and curly, the top pinned back. It really suited her, more than the long hair. 

“I like the short hair. It suits you.” Pidge finally nodded slowly, closing her eyes. “You know, I did the same thing when I was younger.” 

“Huh?” Eden sat on her bed. Pidge invited herself to sit down next to the child, who twiddled her thumbs and refused to make any eye contact.

“Well my brother and dad were a bunch of buttfaces and disappeared on me. So I pretended I was a boy, and it all worked out in the end. I actually liked the haircut I did, I kept it until you were born and the team switched around.” 

“Oh.. I did it because I didn’t like the long hair.” 

“Why didn’t you?” 

“Because I looked too much like my parents. They both have long hair. I love them and all but I just want to be my own self. And not only that, do you know just how many dobashes it takes me to get through it every morning?” Eden finally made eye contact, her blue eyes wide as she gestured wildly. “54! 54 whole dobashes! Then I get helmet hair. I don’t know how Mama and Papa do it.” Eden confessed, making Pidge giggle to herself. 

“You know, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a little different. But you have to know that you look like your parents because you’re their child. There’s no escape. Your personality? Like neither of them. You remind me of your mother and your father at different points, but can either of them shoot a gun as well as you? No. Can either of them make some sick ass macaroni art? No. And lemme tell you kid, you can sing like there’s no tomorrow. Allura and Lotor? Sure they’re good at singing, but no one can hit a soprano whistle note like you can.” Pidge put a hand on her back. Eden hopped down from the bed and walked over to the vanity, staring at her haircut. 

“But I do like this, Pidge. I like how it looks with I turn, look!” She did a pirouette, her hair spinning around her face in a halo. “And now people can see the back of my dresses and I can put it in cute pigtails and-“ 

“There’s nothing wrong with the haircut, like I said, it suits you well. Hunk said you told him you were trying to change yourself.” 

“I wish I wasn’t so girly all the time.” Eden finally blurted out. “I’m sick of Mama always doing my hair all the time for ceremonies. I’m sick of everyone in the Empire thinking I’m just here to stand in front of crowds and look pretty. Everyone looks at my hair, says it’s so pretty and long. Everyone always looks at my delicate arms and just laugh whenever I say something I really mean!”

“Ohhhh, I get it. The stereotypes are the same in the Empire as it is back on Earth, aren’t they?” Pidge finally completely understood. Eden nodded, looking down at the rug. “Well Eden, let me tell you something. Our minds are so much alike. We both think way beyond what we’re supposed to. And it’s the fact that you’re a child, not a girl, even in Zarkon’s time when the Empire was really competitive there were female Commanders. There are female Commanders now. Do your parents see them as powerful?” 

“Yes.” 

“You were born into a family where everyone knows your name. Of course they want you to sit and look pretty, even for the Empire I would say anyone would get freaked out if a child was on the front lines and fighting already. Now tell me this. I’m short. You’re probably going to be taller than me by the time you’re eleven. I was a scrawny kid and still am. Now am I a weak fighter?” 

“No..”

“Was your mother ever a weak fighter, no matter how pretty and delicate she looks?” 

“No…” 

“So you listen to yourself. Besides, a lot of the Empire is full of idiotic isopods. You’re smarter than like 90% of them.” Pidge held out her hand for a fist bump. Finally, Eden smiled and gave her one. “Show them you could be the most kickass princess any form of power has ever faced.”

“Thank you, Pidge.” Eden hugged her.

“Anytime.” 

——

“Grandma!” Zion literally flung himself across the den to throw his arms around his grandmother’s waist. She pet back his bedhead that he refused to brush out. 

“Hello, Zi. Where’s your sister?” Honerva asked. The paladins rushed around all morning trying to clean, by orders of Lotor to treat her like a special guest and give her a warm welcoming. 

“May I interest you in a milkshake?” Lance slid into the room out of nowhere, holding up a milkshake in a fancy glass. Honerva was perplexed. 

“A what?”

“It’s a milkshake!” Zion happily explained. “He squeezed Mama June’s titties.”

“What?!” Honerva went pale.

“Don’t worry. She’s a cow. I ate the other one, remember the Beef Jerky?” Zion smirked slyly at Lance. Lance was still salty about that. Kaltenecker died in a horrific accident, so they made Beef Jerky out of it. Lance was the only one who didn’t eat the jerky. For Zion, it was his favorite food. 

“Grandma?” Eden stepped into the hub, followed by Pidge. Honerva smiled, putting her hands together.

“Look at your hair! You look wonderful.” She stepped over for a hug. 

“Don’t tell Mama and Papa yet. They’ll get mad.” 

“Oh? I do not think they would get mad at such a beautiful hairstyle. Besides.” Honerva knelt down. “They miss you both dearly. Yet Central Command just doesn’t seem safe enough yet. They are working on building a kind of particle barrier that only is alteans could operate, and that will be the first thing they teach you two to use.”

“Does that mean-“ Zion’s face lit up.

“Yes. I am here not only to visit you, but to give you two some training. I do not know as much as your mother, but I will try my best.” 

“There is a room in the basement that holds records of Altea, and it’s operated by similar tech to the teludav. The Queen put it in when we first built this place. Perhaps that’ll be a good place to start.” Shiro offered. 

“That’ll be perfect.” Honerva held the two children’s hands, and they all followed Shiro downstairs.


	9. The Altean Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honerva spends a day with Zion and Eden helping them with some Altean training, which opened up certain memories. She begins contemplating an ultimate sacrifice. Zion begins to show odd behavior, and Eden becomes worried when he doesn’t wake up from his sleep.

Honerva, Eden, and Zion all stood in the dark room. The room was vacant and voided of anything except for teludav operational handles in the middle. “I operated one of these before.” Eden whispered, walking up to it in awe. Her mother held her up to the one in the Castle of Lions when she was three, testing to see if she had any of the powers. They already knew, it was a recessive trait, and since Lotor and Allura both had them then all of their kids would have them. Alleles would tell just how much of the powers they had. She tried it with Zion when he was a baby, and somehow he was able to figure it out.

Eden was a little short for it, however, for Zion he was way too short to even reach both the handles. Zion crossed his arms, puckering his bottom lip.

“It’s too tall.” He pouted.

“No, I’ll show you.” Eden grabbed his hand. Honerva watched as they both ran towards it. “I’ll put my hands on one and you put your hands on the other.”

“Will this even work?” Zion went on his tippy toes to put his hands on the handle, waiting for it to light up.

“Try to dig deep into your core and direct your mind to your hands.” Honerva tried, watching as Zion got increasingly more and more impatient.

Eden put her hands on the other part. “Come on, Zion.”

“I hate this!”

“Zion!”

“No!” He threw himself to the floor. “I’m too tired.”

“Fine then, I’ll do it without you!” Eden moved over to take control of both handles. She closed her eyes, breathing in. She waited a few seconds but nothing was happening. She opened one eye, then the other. Her face turned sour. “Why won’t it work?” She stomped her foot. Wonderful. Two angry children.

“Because, Eden.” HOnerva stepped forward. “You’re trying to operate it in vain. It will not work if you’re trying to use it in an angry or vain attitude.”

“What do you mean? I’m not vain!” Eden was offended right off the bat. Eden only got upset if someone tried to point out her doing wrong. What was really going on was that she was trying to show that she was better than Zion.

“You’re frustrated because your brother would not participate.” Honerva exposed. Damn. “I am not claiming that you are vain, but you need to have patience.”

“I don’t even have the powers! I’m certain of it!” Zion expressed his frustration with mad gesturing of his hands.

“Child, do not be vex. You do have the powers. You have used them before.”

“But I can’t operate this! I was never able to operate a teludav! Don’t they come in different forms?” He shouted, tears beginning to roll down his face. Zion was a hard kid to work with. The slightest of things not working out upset him. Honerva had to slow down and think. This were little kids, not adults.

She kneeled down, getting to his level. “You are truly right, but you just lack the training. How about you try again? No one is perfect. If you do not get it today, it is okay.” She said softly. Zion hadn’t heard kind words like that in a while. Usually that was something he heard from his parents. His parents haven’t been around to reassure him. He sniffled, getting up. He balled up his fists and wiped his tears away, putting his hands back onto the handle. Eden put her hands on the other. He was ready to try again, and expressed it with the nod of his head.

They both breathed in. Yes, it took a few moments, but the teludav operator lit up and suddenly it was like the voided room exploded in floating lights. They took their hands off the system, looking around in awe. Inside the lights were like little pictures of them. It was their memories. Memories of when they were each babies, memories from when they were younger than they were. Memories from not too long ago.

“These are our memories.” Eden breathed.

One made Zion laugh loudly. He pointed to it. “Look!” It was a memory of Eden holding Zion’s newborn self and grimacing, not liking that she now had a brother.

“I remember that one. You did not like the idea of having a brother. You wanted a sister.” Honerva chuckled. “And you made sure your parents knew that.”

“He isn’t AS bad as I thought he would be. Only when he doesn’t put lizards in my bed. Then i don’t like him.” Eden pointed to a memory of her waking up screaming in the middle of the night at Zion’s third favorite lizard named Frank, which wriggled at the foot of her bed.

“Hey! Frank deserves all in the universe!” he shoved her.

Honerva wondered what having a sibling was like. She was an only child, common of alteans. Honerva was perplexed when she heard about human families of twenty people. Allura conceived a lot of kids, and it was probably because Lotor didn’t like condoms (whoops). Honerva was interested in their odd behavior. They fought a lot, then the next second it seemed like they were best friends. She couldn’t imagine that with two more kids.

Two more kids.

She wondered how Allura was doing. She hoped she was doing okay.

“Think new memories would pop up?” Zion looked up at Eden. She took his hand.  
“Of course, Silly! We’re going to live for like… a really long time! This whole void will be full of our memories!”

“Oh yeah. I forgot.” Zion cutely smiled, looking around some more. “Because we got super duper magic blood.”

Honerva forgot about that. She was pregnant with Lotor when she was exposed to the rift. It affected her blood, her husband’s blood, Lotor’s blood. Both Eden and Zion got G- blood, a form of galra blood that was rare and was associated with extremely strong galra. Which meant automatically that they had quintessence running through their veins, the pure kind. EVeryone had quintessence, it’s just that they had a bit extra.

Soon enough with the advancements Lotor is making in his experiments, longer lives wouldn’t be so abnormal. The plan was that individuals of higher ranks would be given the option to live longer, just like how Honerva has lived for 10,000 years. Honerva thought about how long that is. It’s mind boggling to humans, in which their lifespan was a striking 71 years, but it’s still outrageous for any race of people to think about. What would someone do for 10,000 years, or the royal families’ expected 25,000? Allura was exposed to the rift herself during the final battle. Lotor was already set to live for that long. Honerva was old, but she showed absolutely no signs of aging. If she did, it was more wrinkles and stresslines. Honerva thought about how things were just getting settled with the family she had left.

Lotor’s next two kids lacked vitality. This meant that the only possible way to save them was either a miracle or an exposure of quintessence. Honerva wondered even deeper…

Could one give their own quintessence to another?

“Grandma?” Zion waved a hand in front of her face. “You’re blanking out. Are you thinking?”

“Oh, it’s nothing!” She assured him. “Are you two done with the room yet?”

“Yes. I wanna play Fortnite!” Zion ran towards the door. “Come on, Eden! Let’s go!”

Honerva watched as they both ran out giggling, and waited until the door closed. Now she was alone in the room with nothing but the operating system. She walked up to it, laying her hands down onto the handles. She sighed. “If there is anything that could tell me what I should do, show me now.”

The room was silent with nothing but static noise, once again a black void after all of Eden and Zion’s memories disappeared.

The system lit up, and a single bubble of light appeared right in front of her face. She heard a bunch of giggling, and there was a smiling child right in front of her face. The child had her eyes, her nose, her face. The child was her, and she stood in front of a class at an Altean elementary academy. She watched it.

“I’m going to talk about destiny.” The little girl said proudly. “And the red markings on my face are telling me I’m different from the rest. I want to be the first female top alchemist.”

Honerva couldn’t believe it. She was so small, so beautiful. She and Lotor had striking resemblances as children. She was missing her two front teeth, so she had to be around 6. Her voice was marked by a lisp.

“Since the very day I learned about science, I knew I wanted to give my life to something great. Maybe even someone great. If I could save a life with my work, then so be it. I want to make a new discovery and change the course of history when I’m all grown up. And that is my show and tell.” She said, bowing. The class clapped. Alchemy was something celebrated in Altea.

“Is that it? Is that all there is to show?” Honerva said after the memory faded away. The operator powered down under her hands. What did an elementary presentation have to do with anything?

Honerva thought about the words she had said about destiny.

Her whole destiny hasn’t been fulfilled.

She talked about how she was going to save lives. Did she really? Technically speaking, she never was the one to save Lotor. Zarkon was. The doctors were. Honerva never really saved anyone’s life.

And she knew there was a decision to make. She kept it in the back of her head for days now, it was a crazy idea.

If there was any possible way to transmit quintessence from her very self, she could save the twins. She could do it at any point. Lotor’s newfound healing powers weren’t up to par yet, and they may not have time. She took her hands off the operator, and walked out of the room.

 

——-

_“Dear Child, come forward.”_

_Zion stepped towards the cell, looking up to the ancient man. “I don’t know what you want from me.” He said._

_“I do not want anything from you. You want something from me.” Zarkon said. “That is why you summoned me into your sleep._

_“Bitch I ain’t summon anyone.”_

_“You need to listen to my words, Child.”_

Eden curled up under her covers. Her room was already decorated with fairy lights and drawings that she made. She stared up at the ceiling, one hand on her stomach and the other halfway curled by her head. She wanted her Mom there, stroking the top of her head until she fell asleep. She was almost asleep, when suddenly her door slid open. The first thing she saw was messy feathery white hair. “Get out, Zion.”

“I had a bad dream. Again.”

“What do you mean again? Just tell it to go away.”

“But he won’t leave me alone!” Zion whined.

“He?”

“Zarkon!”

“Zarkon’s dead, stupid.”

“But what if he isn’t?”

“Go to bed, Zi. I’m tired. We’re going on a mission with Shiro tomorrow.” Eden yawned, closing her eyes. She felt herself begin to doze off again, when suddenly her blanket was yanked off of her. “Zion!” She snapped out.

“No! I’m sleeping in here!” Zion pulled himself up onto the bed. “Goodnight.” He stated firmly, curling into her side. She sighed deeply, pulling the blanket back over the both of them. She wondered if this whole Zion busting into her room in the middle of the night thing was going to end. He did it since they got rid of his crib.

———

The next morning, Zion was completely sound asleep. A little too sound asleep. Eden sat up, shaking him awake. “Wake up. It’s time to get ready.”

She shook his shoulder for like half a minute.

Zion’s eyes didn’t flutter. His arms didn’t move. Zion wasn’t too much of a deep sleeper, so this was weird. Her heart began to race. “Zion!” She yelled into his pointed ear. His chest moved up and down lightly. Maybe he was faking it. “Zion, this isn’t funny!”

There was a knock at the door. “What’s going on in there?” She heard Lance’s voice.

“Zion won’t stop being an idiot!” Eden yelled, half frustrated. Lance opened the door, and saw that he was asleep.

“What is he doing?”

“He won’t wake up.”

“Dude. Just do this.” Lance walked over and got close to Zion’s ear. “Hey little dude! Time to play Fortnite. It’s the day that I finally beat you.”

Zion didn’t wake up.

Okay, this was a huge issue. Lance pulled him up to a sitting position, but once again his eyes wouldn’t make even so much as a twitch. He picked him up and cradled him. “Okay…. don’t freak out. We’ll just…. get Shiro.”

“Is my grandmother still here?” Eden asked urgently, her eyes shot wide. Lance shook his head. She left last night back to Central Command. Lance carried him out of the room, continuing to yell threats about beating him in Fortnite.


	10. Honerva’s Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honerva makes a quick and unexpected decision that leads to a great magical surge to knock out all communication from Central Command. Zion awakes from another dream, along with a change in personality. The paladins are called into an attack that seems extremely suspicious.

“Lotor!” Honerva yelled down the hall while she sped towards him. He was talking to a few of his commanders, and turned around, ignoring them completely. “You need to listen to me. Where is the Queen?”

“Mom? What’s wrong?”

“I need to speak to you and your wife privately.”

Lotor’s face dropped. “My wife has fallen completely ill again. It is best that we-“

“I need to see the Queen.” Honerva interrupted, her hands beginning to tremble. Lotor saw that she was completely frantic. What exactly happened. “I know what to do, and I am certain it will heal her for good.”

Lotor turned to his Commanders. “Take a break. Order everyone to not interrupt me for the next varga.” He said. Then he grabbed onto his mother’s hand. “Come on.”

They sped towards the door of the master suite, opening it immediately. There was Allura, pale and without a doubt dying on the bed. Her hair looked like it hasn’t been brushed in days. The poor thing. Honerva went over without a word, splaying her hands on Allura’s stomach.

“What are you doing?” Lotor’s eyebrows curved in concern. He rushed over. Honerva didn’t answer. “Mother, answer me!”

Honerva thought about this the entire way back. In the cruiser she was sent back on, she reviewed all of the possible results. All the results lead to the same thing: an ultimate demise of herself. It wouldn’t be immediate, but without the quintessence in her blood, she would age. She couldn’t be that old, but then again she never knew. All she wanted to do was to give a option of certainty.

“I am giving her my own quintessence. The quintessence from the rift that your fathers opened so long ago.” She finally said, refusing to look at him.

“But that means- Wait! Stop!” He literally grabbed her hands and took them away. He looked down at his unconscious wife, then back at his mother. “That means you would kill yourself.”

Honerva was silent once again, a single tear running down her cheek. “My son, I will continue to live. It just means that I will age like I used to. I forget my biological age.. but I’m not too old. There will be time. But if you want to save your wife without destroying the universe… well then you need to allow me to continue.”

Lotor shook his head, eyes wide. “No. I am almost done with my research. The quintessence that I have manufactured would be safe enough for people, not just machines. You just need to give me time-“

“There is no time, my son. Look down at your wife. She is dying. Your soon to come children are dying. You need to let me do this, I beg you.” She sounded broken, desperate. Finally, he took his hands away.

“If you do that, you will cause a power surge. It’s theoretical, but I must warn everyone and make an announcement to everyone in the Command Center first. I trust you, just… be careful.” He got up to leave the room. He turned down the hall and walked towards the nearest intercom, pushing a button. He heard three dings, and now his solemn face was all over the halls and rooms. He exhaled. “Everyone please be prepared for a possible power surge. Please save all of your data within the next dobash. Thank you.”

Lotor walked back into the room, entering but not taking any furthermore steps. He saw his mother’s hands glowing extremely bright, and Allura’s eyes half open. Sure enough, all of the lights shut off completely, right after they flickered wildly and made awful sounds. He flinched when they all burst and finally turned off. Honerva’s hand stopped glowing, and Lotor turned on the flashlight in his gauntlet. She looked over at him, looking extremely grave. She just made an ultimate sacrifice. “It worked.”

“What worked?” Lotor heard his wife say. They were all silent.

———

_“Just tell me what you want.” Zion said in an on edge tone. Zion’s priorities were the same as anyone else his age. Sleeping, eating, playing. He didn’t care for adult stuff. He didn’t care for Zarkon’s shenanigans._

_“You will grow up to be more powerful than you think. Than I thought. Though Altean blood runs through your veins, you possess an ability that my so called wife had. You have the ability to take advantage of any planet, any sector, the entire universe.” Zarkon said. “You have the ability to extract the quintessence from anyone. You could kill them with a single wave of your hand.”_

_“Are you talking about all that scary dark magic stuff? Dude. Yo wife don’t even do that anymore. She chilling with us now. You’re nothing but a wannabe.”_

_Okay. So Zion didn’t really know how much of a scary ass dude Zarkon was. Zarkon raised his voice, booming through the entire void. “And anyone who takes a gift like that for granted is nothing but a wasted life! My son’s wife has given birth to an Altean who possesses more power than anything in the universe! And I hoped that he never had those powers himself, the potential to see beyond, that is why he didn’t know of half of his family history for centuries! But alas here is someone capable, someone who could listen to me. Not even your sister could understand.”_

_“Woah, dude. Calm down you’re going to make me piss my fucking pants.” Zion put both his hands out, backing away. “I ain’t interested in doing all that magic spell abracadabra shit. I just want to wake up and play Fortnite.”_

_Zion was the bravest yet most out of mind child that Zarkon has ever come across. Zarkon couldn’t even begin to think of what the hell his own son took part in bringing into the world. Zion was full of so much potential and thought like an adult, but was the laziest most shameful thing Zarkon has ever spoken to. He was exasperated._

  
“So what exactly is going on with him?” Hunk asked. “Did you call in Lotor and Allura?”

Zion was placed in a child sized cryopod where they scanned every single vital sign of him. They all surrounded him and watched closely for any movement. His hands would occasionally move, like he was having some sort of nightmare.

“Central Command is completely shut down. We have no idea why, nor do we have any contact with Lotor and Allura. It seems as though all fleet movements stopped. I sent Keith out to go and check everything and make sure everything is okay.” Shiro ran down. “Pidge, what is going on with him?”

“His vital signs show that he is completely healthy, and he isn’t in a coma that is anything like the coma’s humans get. I don’t know what Altean or Galra comas are like. But his brain is wildly active right now. It’s like he’s experiencing reality, but his heart rate is slow like he’s asleep.” Pidge said, then she looked over at Eden, who bit her fingernails. “Eden?”

“He’s in the middle of a sacred ritual. It’s something only alchemic alteans experience.” She explained, her face flushed with nervousness. “Mama told me about them. She said it’s a normal thing. It’s when dead relatives talk to us.”

“So…. he’s talking to Alfor or something?” Lance tapped the glass of the cryopod. Hunk moved his hands away. Eden shifted on her feet, biting her lip. She looked like she was on the verge of tears, like many other times in the past week.

“He might’ve said something about Zarkon?”

They all gasped, then there was silence. They all looked at Zion, then at Eden, then back at Zion. Lance turned towards the cryopod. “OKAY I’M WAKING HIM UP-“

“No!” Eden grabbed his arm, yanking him back. He was surprised at how much strength a four year old had. “You have to let him finish it out! Or you risk it reoccurring! He’s obviously been having the same one for more than one night in a row! He’s been all paranoid and annoying.” She began shaking, her hands running through her hair. “It’s my fault too. I’m sure of it!”

“Okay, Sweetie. Calm down.” Shiro picked her up. “He’ll be fine. We will wait.”

Eden put her face into Shiro’s neck, keeping from crying. “I’m sick of all of this. He’s gonna try and talk to me. My dad said he’s the worst one!”

“Zion?” Hunk felt his heart skip, looking down at the boy.

“No, Zarkon!”

 

_Zion was now sitting right in front of Zarkon, literally two meters away right outside of the cell. Zarkon sat crisscross just like Zion, perhaps trying to make himself look more trustworthy. “If you listen to me, you will have everything that you want. Imagine, no one could underestimate you for not being full Galra. You could avenge my doing.”_

_“Why?” Zion asked, his voice echoing. He was in a trance, falling under Zarkon’s influence._

_“What child doesn’t want everything in the universe at their feet?”_

_“But- but….”_

_“Your sister is in your way. Do not listen to her.”_

_“No she’s-“_

_“Wake up.”_

  
Zion shot awake, screaming his head off. He was trapped in something, something with blue glass. He banged his hands against it, but saw the paladins right in front of him, including his sister. Shiro put his hands out, signaling for him to calm down. He opened the cryopod, and Zion jumped out, almost hyperventilating. “Where’s Keith?” He demanded. Keith was his favorite. Keith was the only person he wanted, it was too bad he was sent out on his mission. “Please!” He screamed. He began to throw a fit, and stopped himself abruptly from the yelling and whipping around to look at Eden. “You…. You!” He flung himself at her, and Hunk reached out to pull him back.

“Woah, little dude. Calm down, take deep breaths.”

“Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me motherfucker!” He yelled.

“What’s your problem?” Lance backed away. It was like they just released a Tasmanian devil. Zion flopped himself onto the floor, crossing his arms.

“You experimented on me.” He pouted.

“We put you in a healing pod?” Shiro shrugged.

Suddenly, the alarms went off. The alarms were planted all throughout the Clubhouse, and they only went off when there was an urgent emergency that was probably so bad it required Voltron.

“Okay, we’ll explain later. Everyone to your-“

“What about us?” Eden gestured to herself and Zion. Damn. She already thought ahead, Matt wasn’t there. Honerva left. No one would be there to watch over them. Shiro cursed under his breath, thinking.

“Okay. You two with me.” He said. He picked them both up, carrying them. “Let’s go!”

——-

“Sir, are we ready for the attack?” A soldier asked Sendak.

“Yes. Initiate attack Rebel X.” Sendak replied, a snide expression of satisfaction dripping from his face. Throk stood by him.

“With Central Command down and the children with the paladins, they should get a distress signal any moment. We will lead them all into the abandoned base in the ulipasystem.” Throk said.

“Certainly. With that, the day is in our favor. We will take down whoever comes to the rescue when we capture the children. Wipe the paladins out.” Sendak ordered. Throk soluted, turning around to walk out from the bridge. Their plan was in motion. They waited every second of every single day. It was time for the demise of Lotor, and with that, it would finally be Sendak’s renewed chance of taking the Galra throne. No Galtean would remain.

——

  
Zion was quiet the entire way towards the target. A bunch of Galra rebel fleets surrounded the ulipasystem, and Shiro knew it was Sendak’s fleets. He was planning a battle of a lifetime, but his intention was unknown.

“What is he trying to gain? Territory?” Eden watched as Shiro flew the lion.

“If anyone, it would be you who would know. He’s attacked your home before, correct?”

“Yes. You were there. Papa calls him a wannabe, a pirate. I think he’s trying to get this area. Why? Well I don’t know. This area sucks.” Eden said. “There’s no good recourses, no good land durable enough for construction.”

“Huh. You’re a smart kid.”

“Of course I am.”

“Zion? You’re a bit quiet back there.” Shiro turned around. Zion was hugging his knees, his face looking annoyed and tired right behind Shiro’s seat. “Wanna tell us what’s going on?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” He heard, Zion voice tiny and fragile. What was wrong? Eden ducked down to sit next to Zion.

“Dude. You ain’t acting right.” She said. Zion turned his head away from her, closing his eyes.

Zion was told by Zarkon all kinds of horrible things. It was in no way right, Zion would be turning three in a few days. He was a small child, basically a baby. He shouldn’t have been acting so depressed, he was always the one to make everyone else feel better. He was told by Zarkon not to trust anyone in his family.

So of course Zion was put into thought. Toddlers believe everything they are told.

Shiro just let them be. “Keith? Do you copy?”

“Yes. I’ll be within contact with you guys in two Vargas.”

“Two vargas? That’s like two hours!” Pidge replied.

“Well.. um, there’s a bit of a problem back at Central Command. It’s kind of a big one. Lotor won’t talk to me and no one is letting me in. Apparently..” Keith let out a breath, changing his volume to a whisper. “Honerva collapsed? Lotor told me to hold my position. I have no idea if someone attacked them from the inside or not.”

“Okay. Well hold your position, but we might need you when we go in. We’re almost there. The fleets are firing at each other, and honestly I don’t think we should do this. But you know Lotor’s preferences.” Shiro said. Lotor told team Voltron after the war ended that if any attacks happen then the team would need to break them up.

“Um, we haven’t faced an attack like this in awhile. It seems like there are a lot of cruisers involved according to my charts. Was it okay to bring the kids?” Hunk asked, nervous. Shiro didn’t quite think this through. They were babysitters, this was a dangerous situation. Zion was having a bad day and Eden was clearly having one too. Sure they knew how to fight but that was with children their size. Would Lotor and Allura really want them to be doing this? How mad would they be?

They continued traveling into the zone, and the nervousness arose more and more. “Oh my god.” Pidge whispered. Cruisers were everywhere, shooting at each other. Scrap metal flew with the explosions, right beside a planet. The planet was known as Fex, a planet heavily populated with innocent citizens who specialized in medicine. However, all of these cruisers weren’t normal looking Galra cruisers. They were all Sendak’s, why were they battling each other?

“Trap?” Eden asked, holding onto Shiro’s arm. She was right. They were probably trying to cause attention, but they were way too close to the planet.

This was bad.

 

 

 


	11. A drastic turn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honerva becomes increasingly weak as she wakes, realizing that the quintessence was ripped from her. She helps Lotor and Allura with finding their children after Lotor realizes just how much trouble was on the rise. Eden tries to stop Zion after he takes an extremely drastic turn.

Honerva woke up after passing out, and Allura was holding a damp towel to her forehead. Honerva saw that Allura’s eyes glinted, as if she was amazed or in awe. “Honerva?”

Honerva sat up, seeing that Allura was up and suddenly energetic and normal. Perhaps it was all a dream, but Honerva felt as if she was missing something, like something left her body. It was true. She transmitted her quintessence. She realized that she no longer was sad about what she did. It obviously worked on Allura, if this was truly forever successful, then she saved three lives. No longer did Honerva ever wish to return to those old ways of her taking quintessence from planets and from people, for it was deadly. It was terrible.

“Are you okay?” Allura asked. Honerva felt her eyes flood with tears, pulling Allura into a hug. She saw her son through those tears at the other side of the room, his shirt off and he was looking into the mirror. His hair was a mess. What just happened? He heard the sniffling, and he turned around.

“Mom-” He said, literally running over to hold her face in his hands. “You’re okay. You’ll be fine.”

He has never expected to see Haggar nor Honerva cry. He never has, growing up he only saw her as an old witch with the same melancholic expression. This was completely new, and it struck him how sensitive of a person his mother actually was.

“You look a wreck.” She said.

“Lotor just went out to go fix the systems, and he was electrocuted.” Allura explained. Honerva saw it now. Lotor had odd bruises all over him. “But what you just did.. I need to know if you’re really okay. I’ve never seen any altean magic like-”

“My child, hush. Do not worry about me. Your children will live.” Honerva’s pupils were dilated. Then she searched the air like she just heard something, or like she was a feline sniffing the air. She sensed something, and her eyes went round. She stood up quickly, her bones suddenly feeling a lot weaker than they were. “There’s a disturbance in the empire. Something is going on.”

“It could be that no one has contact with us.” Lotor said.

“No. Something bigger.” she said. “Get ready. We’re heading down to the komar.” She began to rush out of the room. Lotor felt his heart lurch.

“What? We prohibited that decaphebes ago!”

“No. It is the only way. I feel like something- a planet- will be destroyed.” Honerva said.

Allura stood. “I’ll get ready too.”

“Good. I will need one of you. I promise I will not harm either of you.” Honerva’s expression was solid, determined, ready for a fight. Lotor knew exactly what she was about to do. Her and Zarkon used the comar all the time. She still knew how to use dark magic, it was because it’s how Zarkon would try endlessly to locate the Black Lion. Now she was planning to use one of them to do the same thing for a good reason.

“I’ll do it. I have a connection to the Black Lion.” Lotor volunteered.

Lotor had no idea what was happening, but if there was some kind of battle or something going on, it had to be Sendak. It was always Sendak. Why wouldn’t he directly be attacking Central Command right now? He was always power hungry, jealous of what Lotor has earned himself. It was karma; karma was a bitch to Sendak.

Sendak took Lotor’s place as Zarkon’s son when they were young. Lotor longed for that relationship yet his father never trained him. Sendak became his apprentice and was praised for years, held up high on a pedi stool. Now since that wasn’t the case, Sendak was losing it. So he started attacking, but he hasn’t done it since Lotor and Allura sent their kids out-

Their kids.

Just then, it finally hit Lotor.

Sendak was after his children.

Lotor and Allura have made the biggest mistake of their lives.

  
______

  
The announcement came through the lions’ systems, a dark voice with booming power rocking the speakers. “If you do not hand over the Black Lion immediately I will come after you and your group!” It said.

Lance groaned, complaining. “God, it’s like Zarkon all over again!”

“It was a trap!” Pidge yelled. And so Eden was right. It was a trap, Sendak drew them out, he literally had their own fleet attack each other just to draw the attention. So he wanted the Black Lion, he was about to get a taste of it. Shiro cursed under his breath.

“If we abort then all of them would come after us. Keith! What is your position?” Shiro demanded.

“Um…” Keith sounded out of breath and frustrated. “On my way! It looks like Central Command’s Komar is lighting up or something.” It must’ve been Honerva, back to her old ways. Keith wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. He would find out later.

“Just ignore it and get your gay ass over here!” Lance yelled. Jeez.

“What do we do? Just stand our ground? Form an armless Voltron? No offense, Shiro.” Hunk panicked. “I’m just getting really nervous right now.”

“We hold our ground.” He decided. “The moment they start attacking we separate into the 4 corners of the fleets until Keith gets here.”

“I wanna go home.” Zion has his head in his knees. Shiro turned around, giving a forced comforting expression.

“It’s okay, lil dude. You can help me. Command me of where to go when they start attacking, you’re smart, right?”

Zion smiled for the first time that day. “Okay.” He stood.

  
——-

  
“Lotor, are you ready?” Honerva said. “You must focus on whatever connection you have to the Black Lion, and I will take care of the rest.”

“Yes.” Lotor replied, preparing himself by shaking out his knuckles, standing in the middle of the platform that his once stood on for destruction and evil. He was using the method as last resort. Honerva wasn’t sure she was ready though. She always had her druids with her when exerting the amount of energy she would need to get Lotor to sense the Lion. When Lotor said that he knew what Sendak was trying to do with his kids, she kinda had to do it alone. It was risky, especially since the extra quintessence was ripped from her. She felt herself growing older by the minute, her heart beating slower and her fingers becoming harder to move. Would she still be able to do it? Time to test that. She reached out her arms, breathing in deeply.

And then, it happened.

Allura was watching from far away, stunned at what was happening. Instead of the dark obsidian colored bolts that came from Honerva’s hands before, they were white, pure energy hitting Lotor and alas doing no harm. Pure Altean alchemy was what it was, it was beautiful and all other words to describe extraordinary. Allura watched, a single tear running down her face. She was crying because she was proud of Honerva, proud of her achieving something so amazing when she knew that all throughout childhood Honerva was thought to have minimal powers, or no powers at all. This is what she was capable of, this was one for the history books. But she was also crying because deep in her stomach she felt a kick, the first kick of the entire pregnancy. She didn’t know she was pregnant for a long time, she was far along. And although she showed no bump yet she felt that kick. It was proof that her children were healthy.

The blast of magic subdued, fading to nothing. Lotor groaned, holding his head.

“Are you okay?” Honerva gasped, taking a few steps forward towards the edge of her platform.

“I know their location, near Planet Fex in the Vocar quadrant.” he grunted. “We must hurry. Our children are in the Black Lion.”

“Are you hurt?” Allura wiped the tears from her face. She felt so tired.

“No. Just a lot of energy to take in.” Lotor moved his platform back up towards the floor.

“All of the ships and sentries are powered down, Sire. We have no way to get there.” Honerva hesitated through her words when she caught Lotor’s clenched jaw and tense demeanor.

“We take the Sincline ships. They do not need the Command’s power.” Allura rushed over to her husband to take his hand. “And we are all going.” She caught his eyes, irises solid and warning. Allura was the only one who Lotor would without a doubt follow when commanded. Half because she was scary when she didn’t get her way, and another half because that’s respecting women rule number one, specifically when the woman fought for the universe with the greatest team of all time, and a very very small percentage because she was pregnant and if Lotor argued now she would probably cut his hair in his sleep.

_________

  
“It is time to fight!” Zion exclaimed excitedly when the Blue Lion got blasted and Shiro ordered to start fighting. There were so many cruisers, he wasn’t sure if they could do it without Voltron. “Yeah! I call this one the slice n’ dice!” He pointed to a nearby ship, one of the larger ones. Shiro went towards that one. “Activate jaw blade!” Zion took Shiro’s bayard and shoved it into the key, turning it. The jawblade activated, and Shiro was surprised at how much initiative the kid was taking. Eden called out the on coming ships and rays, guiding Shiro. Okay. These two were going places.

“I’ll be there in two dobashes!” Keith said, giving Shiro a flood of relief. About 30 seconds later, they heard a bunch of radio static.

“Paladins! Can you hear me?” They heard a very familiar accented voice. Allura. Everyone cheered. The Sincline ships’, both of them, came into radar along with Keith’s Lion.

“Hey! It’s the good ol’ team, back at it again!” Lance spun around in his lion while freezing three ships.

“Hey, don’t forget about me!” They heard Coran.

“Coran!” Eden bounced up in down, excited.

“What a lit ass party this is!” Zion threw his fists in the air. “Hi Mama!”

“Shiro, we need you to get out of there!” They heard Lotor.

“What?” Shiro yelled over a nearby blast, his Lion rattling.

“They are after my children, they pulled you all out there to get them. They don’t want anything else!”

Oh fuck.

Shiro looked at Zion and Eden, who looked at each other and back at Shiro. Suddenly, Zion felt dizzy, extremely dizzy. He held his head, and his father’s voice faded in his head and was replaced by a high pitched ringing sound. “Zion!” Eden shook him.

 _“Your father is lying.”_ Zion heard. It was Zarkon’s ever so familiar voice _. “If you go to Sendak now, you will be safe from getting caught in a blood duel. Everyone will be safe.”_

“Snap out of it!” His sister slapped him across the face.

Zion thought for a minute. If he went with his father, Sendak would just come after all of them. All of this would continue. What would Sendak even do to him anyways? He looked up at Shiro, jumping up and laying a hand on Shiro’s neck.

“Sorry Shiro.” He apologized, a cynical grin on his face. Eden battlecried, pulling him off. She knew what Zion was trying to do and by the time his hand parted from Shiro’s neck Shiro was already knocked out. It was an Altean power alchemic children learn early on, on that knocks people into comas. Zion did it just to be funny before, but now he totally just did something that made everything worse.

“Touch me and I’ll knock you out too! This is for our own fucking good!” Zion turned to take the handles of the Black Lion, literally steering it from the shooting ships.

  
Lotor and Allura both heard what was going on. “What happened?” Allura snapped.

“Sorry, I have to do this!” Zion said.

“Zion Ace Sincline you will listen to me!” Lotor exclaimed sharply. He knew what Zion did and he didn’t even have to see. “That lion is not a play toy!”

“Well what do you expect me to do? Park it?” Zion backtalked. When Eden caught sight of his eyes, she noticed they were glowing, like he was corrupted or possessed. She yelped, backing away.

“Is he… piloting?” Coran was in total awe. How? The lion should have powered down when Shiro was knocked out. The right to pilot didn’t come from genetics, Lotor was a coincidence being able to connect to the black lion. They were confused.

“We need to form Voltron!” Keith yelled. “What did you do?”

 

Zion didn’t answer, only piloted. He was standing on the pedals on his tip toes, barely able to see over the dashboard. He then turned off all of the com systems, focusing towards the biggest ship. Biggest ship had Sendak.

“Zarkon, you’re an idiotic bigot!” Eden yelled. Zion turned and looked down at her, looking angry. What the hell was going on?

“I’m not Zarkon! You know nothing about that!” He spat.

 

“The Black Lion’s com systems were shut off. Someone stop them!” Honerva yelled. She was piloting one of the Sincline ships like a badass.

“It’s too far! He’s going too fast!” Lance said.

“Someone’s grounded.” Allura muttered.

They all watched helplessly as they all tried to speed towards the Lion, until a hanger opened up on the largest cruiser. Eden tried to push Zion away, but he managed to aim the lion right for the opening before letting go of the handles, letting the lion crash land into the doors.


	12. Duels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Zion unknowingly gives him, Eden, and Shiro up to the Black Lion, Lotor agrees to duel with Sendak for placement of the Throne in order to protect his children, however that leaves Eden and Zion to battle Throk. Honerva begins to become incredibly weak, as time begins running out.

“Zion, you idiot!” Eden whisper yelled. They were both handcuffed, being held captive by rebel gaurds. They were standing behind Sendak and Throk, who spoke on the big screen. Zion was confused. What exactly did he do? He faintly remembered piloting the Black Lion but how? How would the Black Lion automatically trust him like that in that kind of pursuit? He was a child. There was no way he could ever be a paladin. Now they were in Sendak and Throk’s custody. Shiro was being kept in a cell at the bottom of the ship.

“If you want the Black Lion, along with it’s pilot and your precious children back you will battle me right here on planet Fex. One on one. You and me, Lotor. It’ll be just like the good old days.” Sendak seethed in a sadistic manner. Lotor was in the screen, looking completely livid. His face was stone cold. 

“You kidnap my children and cause all of this… this imbecility!” He sneered.

“Your children willingly came to me. It was your son’s decision. Your son who is supposedly going to be a leader. Perhaps if I were the one to train him he could be everything you ever dreamed of being.” 

“And yet you seem to forget the many battles you have lost, Sendak.” Allura joined in.

Sendak waved his hand. “And?” When he waved his hand, Throk went over and picked up Eden by the collar, holding her high up off the ground. She spat on him, calling him a two faced cunt. He flinched in disgust, he hated children. “If you back down from the offer your children will be killed on the spot. Do not forget just how much power I possess. Children are easy. You’d be surprised at how easily their little bones could break.” Sendak walked over and took Eden’s arm in his hand, and Lotor’s eyes shot wide. Eden squirmed, protesting. He was getting ready to snap her arm for sure. 

“Fine! We fight through honorable rite, and not only that, we fight in the name of revenge!” Lotor declared. “Just like the good ol’ days.” 

Eden was dropped, and she landed on her knees, running back towards the guard and avoiding trouble. She threw Zion a nasty look, who continued to just stare down at his feet. The thing that Eden didn’t realize was that Zion didn’t even realize what he did. She didn’t want to think of anything else other than beating him up when they got home. She couldn’t look at him anymore, turning away to stare in the other direction. It was just then she saw lined up on the wall were guns, and some were child sized.

“Do you hear that?” Sendak turned to face the children when the screen signed off. “It is finally time that I take the throne. Thank you, Prince Zion. You just introduced the universe to an era that your family was trying to get rid of.”

Zion looked up at him blankly. “He will win.”

“Not with my newest upgrade.” Sendak raised his brand new robot arm, upgraded beyond anything he has ever had. “The amount of power it has couldn’t take down a building with a single shot.”

“He will win. He always wins.” Zion said, not changing his deadpan face. 

“That’s cute.” Sendak began to walk towards the exit. “Throk, prepare my ship for-”

“He won against my grandfather. He won against you. And you too.” Zion faced Throk. “He wins when we play chess. He wins when we run races. He wins when we play Mariokart. You know, this old game from Earth.”

“That’s great!” Throk said in a ridiculous high pitched voice, mocking Zion. “Your father only knows how to play games! That’s what got him exiled when he was a teenager.” 

“He said you looked like a two faced altean sewer rat, mister. He told me you see in two directions and Sendak only sees in half a direction.” he went on. “And even if I did give ourselves up to you, I also gave you up to the most powerful force in the universe. If you go out and face Papa, you’ll face your death. And not for the reasons you think.”

“Throk, while you’re prepare my ship, lock these two little brats up. Make sure they do not see the light of day again.” Sendak stormed out of the room, getting ready for the duel. Throk kneeled down, speaking softly, his smile dripping with cynicality. 

“You won’t be seeing your Papa anytime soon. Like they say, Victory or Death.” 

Eden’s stomach almost did a full flip. She knew that with Throk still on the ship, no matter the outcome of the duel they would both be killed. She needed to get herself out. She needed to get her delusional brother out as well. She looked back over to the wall of fully charged guns, already favoring the one on the far right…

 

\------

 

Keith was furious with himself. If he got there a little more earlier, there wouldn’t be a problem. However, every single one of them was fully confident that Lotor would win. 

With the Galra Empire, it has always been tradition to fight in honorable rite of combat. It was a way to settle things, and would usually end with the death of the losing opponent. It was supposed to be fought one on one with a weapon of choice, and that was it. Sendak stood on one side of the field on Planet Fex, and Lotor on the other, wielding an Altean broadsword in his right hand. His hair blew in every which direction while he waited. He was determined to finally end Sendak’s life by the time the sun set, which the sky was beginning to turn a light purple. The planet was very similar to Earth, with it’s population and size, as well as diversity of language. They were able to communicate to the leader to keep everyone away during the fight. This was by far the easiest way in which no one would get hurt. 

“The time has come.” Sendak growled. “For your demise.”

“How cheesy does someone have to be?” Lance whispered to Keith, tightly holding his hand. The other paladins except Shiro watched closely off to the sidelines. 

“If I win, my children and the Black Paladin will be released without so much as a scratch.” Lotor proposed, tightening his grip on his sword. 

“Perhaps.” Sendak shrugged. That provoked Lotor, who darted at him, jumping and bringing his sword down. That’s when the fight began. 

 

Allura, Honerva, and Coran all snuck on the main fleet ship, which was now parked down on the planet. “This is just like my days as a paladin.” Allura whispered. 

“I know where the main conduct is, however I sense that there is strong movement going on right now.” Honerva whispered back as they cautiously tiptoed through the halls. One of the lights were flickering, giving them more of a tense feel. Honerva was quite wobbly and obviously weak, and Allura and Coran addressed it several times. Honerva would only say not to worry about her, only to worry about the children. 

“Strong movement? Like a conflict?” 

“I do not know.” 

“Well the kids are very smart, if there was a conflict I’m sure they could get out of it themselves.” Coran pointed out, trying to brighten the mood. 

Allura and Honerva both stopped to give Coran the ‘Boi if you don’t shut the fuck up’ face. He shrugged. 

“My children are gifted. They aren’t indestructible, thanks.” Allura facepalmed. 

“I just hope they are okay, they’re probably frightened.” Coran corrected himself.

 

“AHHHHHHH-“ Eden darted, kicking Throk hard in the shin. He yelped, grabbing his leg. She waited about half an hour for the perfect moment. The perfect moment was when Throk sent all the guards out of the room to go and make him a single sandwich. Zion circled the room to get to the control panel. He hopped up onto it. “Zion! Shut off the power!” Eden yelled, hoping she could trust him once again. Thankfully she could, because Zion bent down and turned off all the power, completely dimming out the room. 

“You little bitch-“ Throk ran for Eden, reaching out to once again grab her by the collar. She did a forward roll, then went up to do a stag leap. 

“Never mess with a dancer, stupidhead!” She did a whole ass front ariel, getting close enough the grab a gun off the wall. 

“Oh~ ThrOk!” Zion sang, getting Throk’s attention. He whipped around to see Zion literally twerking. “This is what you are!” He stopped, letting out a big ass fart. God dammit Zion. Throk was perplexed on how immature the child could be, but then he felt a blast right on his back, almost knocking him completely over. There was Eden, holding a gun in both of her hands, one of her eyes closed. 

“Never EVER mess with my brother!” Eden shrieked, running at full sprint. At full sprint Eden was about the speed of Usain Bolt, the fastest human in Earth. Throk pulled his sword, getting ready to bring it down on the toddler. 

“No!” Zion yelled, hopping off the control panel and sprinting towards Throk, literally jumping high enough to throw himself on Throk’s back that was way above him. He put him into a choke hold, making Throk wobble backwards. How was he getting beat by two small children? “Tap out! Tap out you fucking pussy!” Zion stuck his claws into Throk’s left eye, making him scream in pain.

The guards rushed in, one holding the sandwich. “The power was-“ he began, but all of them stopped when they saw what was going on. Then they acted, three of them going after Eden and another one pulling Zion off of Throk. Eden shot at some of them, one in the knee, making him topple over and groan in agony. It was all up to her now, alas, she didn’t last too long before she was caught as well. They took the gun from her while she kicked and screamed.

“Hold them still! On the ground! It is time these two twerps took their last breath!” Throk regrouped himself, his eye half closed and bleeding. The guards forced the kids to their knees, as they both looked at each other helplessly. 

“You lied to me, Zarkon.” Zion said to himself. Throk gave him a weird look. 

“I am not Zarkon.” 

“I guess it’s a good thing too.” Eden frowned, her heart racing. 

“He was a total douché bag.” Zion added. 

“Zarkon was our mighty emperor!” Throk protested, raising his single edged sword. 

“Zarkon was a liar! Zarkon lied to you too, didn’t he?!” He yelled. “He told you that you would be at the top of his commands! You were never, you waited and waited for years, didn’t you? I read the history books!” 

“You know nothing!” 

“We know everything!” Eden joined in. “Tell me how many times you have gotten screwed over, huh? If Zarkon has lied to you then why do you so desperately try to carry out his reign and avenge him? For all you know Sendak is just using you!” 

Throk lowered his sword. Not a lot, just a little bit. What they were doing was using reverse psychology, they knew of Throk. Lotor told them stories. They knew that Throk was just some big joke and was uptight because he wanted that power. The reverse psychology was a natural way of knowledge that they inherited from Lotor, as he was a powerful manipulator in the peak times of war. 

“Why do you think he just left you here to watch us?” Eden continued on, lowering her voice and making herself seem as tense as she could possibly get. “If you just joined us, then you could have so much more. You could have the quintessence you’ve always wanted. You could be glorified, just like how our own grandfather glorified Sendak.” 

Honerva busted into the room along with Coran and Allura, holding out her hand to Throk. Honerva was the only person that terrified Throk. She tortured him, she almost killed him several times. And by the looks of the face she was making, she wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. Right when he saw her, he backed up and by the angry pregnant lady and crazy old man he dropped his sword, surrendering. The guards then let the kids go, and they both ran up towards Allura and threw themselves into her arms. 

“Oh, thank the heavens you two are safe!” 

“I’m sorry Mama. I don’t know what I did.” Zion broke down. Do you know how terrifying that was for them? For them to hold their cool like that? They could have been dead right then and there. “It’s all Zarkon! All of it!” 

“Zarkon?!” Honerva and Coran both turned around in shock. 

“He keeps speaking to me and is an annoying ass bitch!” He sobbed. Eden was crying too, unable to speak from the shock. She clenched her mother’s hair in her hands. Allura looked up to Honerva for any kind of advice, anything. Honerva’s eyebrows creased with concern, and she looked over back at Throk.

“Don’t hurt me.” Throk shook. 

“No. I will not hurt you. But you will need to answer a lot of questions and are under arrest.” 

 

Lotor discovered that Sendak’s brand new arm was the hardest close combat weapon he has ever faced. Ever. 

Sendak’s ear was cut and bleeding, and he even had a tooth knocked out. Lotor’s hair was a mess, his face carrying a fresh bruise with a huge gash on his forehead. He panted, running to get another hit. What he discovered with Sendak’s weapon was that it has five different kinds of attacks, and Sendak did the attacks based on the position Lotor seemed to be in. What Lotor began to do was fake positions to get an attack that he knew how to get a clear hit within the fastest possible time. 

“Why don’t you just surrender now, you furry!” Hunk called out, making Sendak even angrier. Pidge elbowed him hard. 

Lotor slid back on his heels when Sendak fired an attack on him, peeling up the grass. Before he could get up again, Sendak fires yet another attack on him, making him topple over hurting his ribs. Lotor saw stars for a second, but was able to get up when Sendak was distracted by a loud noise. He fleet ship was starting up off in the distance. He cursed, hoping it was just Throk being an idiot and disobeying his commands. When he was distracted, he didn’t notice Lotor bringing his sword down onto his shoulder, slicing through the armor and past the suit. He screamed out in pain, and Lotor punched him straight in the gut. He knocked him over. Sendak hopped back up, generating a new attack. It was some kind of blast, right to Lotor’s gut. It sent him back about twenty meters, and it felt as if someone had just ripped him open. He looked down, and his chestplate was broken. 

Lotor’s head wasn’t in the duel. All he was thinking about were his children. In the past, the only thing on Lotor’s mind was the throne. Soon it was on his Altean alchemy training, then it was on Allura. His priorities went from being those of a brute Galra to being those of a normal person with morals, then to being a parents’ when Eden was born. 

So Lotor knew that this battle was harder for him, almost as bad as the one between him and Zarkon years ago. 

Sendak was just about to fire another attack on him when he looked up and in double vision saw his mother on the field behind Sendak. “Sendak!” She yelled. 

That was when the battle was completely halted.


	13. An unwanted ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just... sad. Sad and sudden.

“Sendak, you have betrayed me!” Honerva shouted. Sendak was practically gaping, completely and totally utterly shocked. 

“Betrayed?” Lotor mouthed, sudden pain hitting his chest and making him wheeze. 

“And how have I betrayed you?” Sendak asked.

“I told you you could use that arm as protection. You have signed a contract that clearly states that if you used it for any other reason your demise would be certain!” Honerva went on. “After the war. You signed it after the war and the laws changed! Therefore it is still valid!” 

Sendak still had respect for Haggar, for Honerva… well, he wasn’t too sure. It was the same person who supposedly rescued and trained him. Sendak at one point was like a son to her. Now that she knew Lotor was her son, things have changed. She was where Lotor and Sendak’s paths crossed. 

“And since the document was under the Galra, you have brought betrayal to your so called idol. Zarkon. You have failed Zarkon!” 

“I have not failed him!” 

Sendak thought for a second. That tiny little rat, that tiny child who was Prince Zion mentioned something odd to him earlier. Did he know?

Honerva programmed the arm in a way that if Sendak used it for anything she was against and in which he agreed, then she would be able to kill him. There was no way for him to get the arm off. There was no way for him to avoid this, as Honerva could easily just end his life right now. It was more of something of a curse, Sendak saw the arm just as something that would make him more powerful. He was wrong. It was something that made him incredibly weak. 

That is what the child meant when he said Sendak didn’t know just what he was about to face. He forgot about it. He dropped to a kneel, saluting. “Please, I beg you. Do not do this.” 

“No! You will face my wrath!” Honerva raised both of her hands, in which they began to glow. It was Sendak’s time to die, and Lotor wasn’t going to be the one to do it. 

Allura and Coran came out of the ship, leaving Eden and Zion with Shiro. Allura watched as Honerva’s hands began to light up, but noticed something about her skin tone. She was extremely pale, her arms were shaking. What was going on? 

Just as Sendak waited for his death, Honerva collapsed.

“Honerva!” Allura shrieked, but Lotor was already up and sprinting towards her, literally coughing up blood. 

Allura heard a very emotionally strangled “Mother!” Erupt from her husband’s throat. Allura stopped, sinking to her knees, unable to run any further. She was too tired. She was too weak. She watched as Lotor sprinted towards Honerva, picking her up and cradling her in his arms. Honerva was so small compared to her own son. This hit Allura close to home as she watched, realizing that Lotor was her child. Lotor was her baby, Lotor was the one who was supposed to be cradled, but Lotor was a full on man. Allura was sickened by the thought of her children growing past her one day, her children would be the ones to put her in the ground if she ever chose to stop the quintessence doses and pass off. 

This was painful to watch. 

“Mom. It’s me- mother-“ Lotor choked up, his voice breaking with desperate tears. He looked down at his mother’s face, old with wrinkles and creases. Weak with age and sadness. He felt his heart pound in his chest in an off beat. The time has come. 

The lack of quintessence that once caused her to immortality was taking it’s effect.

Death. 

Lotor laid a hand to her chest allowing it to glow. He was using his newly found healing abilities in attempt to keep her from death. They didn’t seem to be working.

She weakly blinked up at him, her golden irises full of tears, a weak smile on her drooping face. “My son…. you’re everything I ever wanted you to be…ha, you have made me so proud…”

“Please, mother, you cannot leave me! I forbid you to leave me!” Lotor’s tears dropped off of his face and onto her cloak. It was the first time Allura has ever seen him cry. 

“I will never leave you. I promise I will always be there for you..” she whispered, her breaths in short wheezes. “It’s a promise I never was able to fulfill when you grew.. so…. do not cry… my son…”

Lotor sniffled, stroking her fragile face. Sendak watched from afar. It was the one thing that could have stopped Sendak, and that was that he knew how to respect a situation like this, even if it was an enemy who was involved. 

Sendak kneeled down, putting a fist over his chest in honor. He already knew what would happen in the next couple of seconds. They all did. And it was no one’s fault. 

“I’ve always needed you, Mom. I always have. Even when I was little and you were nothing but a witch I sometimes longed for you to be there with me, because in the back of my mind I knew you were my mother. I was just getting to know you and-“ 

“Hush, my child. Do not waste your breath… for you need to save it. Enjoy the time you have with your children… they will be born… I give my life to them…” Honerva’s wheezing breaths trailed off, and her chest rose and fell for one last time, and finally, she passed. 

Lotor knew this was no one’s fault, but with this happening an uncontrollable rage arose. He felt it boiling in every drop of Galra blood in every Altean vein in his body. His hands heated up. His face darkened, and so, he got up and bolted after Sendak. “SENDAK!” He screamed, drawing his sword and Sendak just stood there, knowing that if he continued to fight he would lose. Lotor’s rage was a whole nother level in that moment, and he knew there was no stopping Lotor in any circumstance. Sendak knew Lotor’s kids were both standing behind them and they would have to witness their father killing someone, and that would be something he would leave Lotor to live with himself by doing nothing. Lotor brought down his sword on Sendak, and with a large gaping wound being cut he collapsed, taking his final breaths. 

And that was the death of the mighty Sendak. 

Allura got up and walked towards Honerva’s lifeless body, laying a hand on her head. “Thank you for everything you have done for my family. You were Altea’s honor.” She whispered. 

Eden and Zion watched pretty much all of this go down, and they walked out of the foyer of the ship and raced up to hug their father. He picked them both up, noticing that tears were covering their flushed faces. “Is everything going to be okay?” Eden asked, her voice tiny and raspy. 

“Yes, sweetie.” Lotor nodded with a shaky breath. “Everything will be fine.” 

“Well at least you killed that motherfucker.” Zion pointed down to Sendak, refusing to actually look. 

“He was certainly one motherfucker.” Lotor cussed for the very first time ever. “We’ll figure this all out. And I am not leaving you two like this again.” 

Voltron stood tall in the back, just finishing up taking out the fleets. The rebellion was over, yet he was still worried about his son. He knew that both of his kids were being manipulated in their dreams but Zion’s dreams were of the worst person Lotor could imagine meeting his children. He would have to explain to them that Zarkon is indeed alive and in the most extreme possible prison that is imaginable. When they are older and closer to being adults, it would become their choice to meet the man who changed the universe for the worst for 10,000 years. But as of now, it was time to move on as a family and plan out a very honorable funeral and a belated birthday party. 

And so team Voltron and the Royal family headed for Central Command.


	14. Zarkon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Very short chapter. Pretty much them all being back home.

Lotor awaited on the elevator as it went down, his arms crossed. He wore his best armor, along with his Altean cape. He wanted to make sure he looked his best. 

The elevator lead down to a very open and black void, one in which a single jail cell was right in the middle. It was similar to the one the paladins kept him in on his first few days in the Castle of Lions, only it was much larger and much much more guarded. 

The elevator hit the bottom of it’s tunnel, and the doors slid open. He took a deep breath, stepping out. His boots echoed off of the distant walls, his steps slow and steady. Another breath in, another one out. 

He saw the figure in the cell, sitting down crisscrossed. 

“Hello, father.” He said. “I have something that I need to address you on.” 

Zarkon took a moment to answer, and when he did, it was a very salty “What.” 

“My son has claimed that he has been having certain…. stirrings about you. You were trying to convince him against me. Against my wife. Even against my daughter.” Lotor said. “I understand of how much power my mother has given you over time. What I didn’t know was that you had the ability to-“ 

“Ability to see beyond? Beyond all of the treachery you have caused my Empire?” Zarkon seethed.

“As far as I know, I am the leader. You succeeded Vrig the Great. You have went against the Empire he has set up for you, one that could have turned out extremely scientifically advanced. Your claim is hypocrisy.” Lotor rose his voice, feeling tense. 

“The Empire has become something amazing with it’s power, and as far as I know you have ruined what we had. You set planets free, you’re losing materials, slaves, followers!” Zarkon yelled. 

Lotor cringed. “For the cost of the suppression of the innocent? I think not. You have given greater punishment to trillions then this punishment of seclusion I have given you. You should count yourself lucky. But the reason I came down here is not because of the way I chose to run MY Empire, it is because my very son is too terrified to sleep!” 

“Your son could be something great, unlike you turned out to be! You are raising him to be weak. You’re letting his Galra blood go to waste.” 

“My son is a child! He is practically a baby! I refuse to treat him with the same neglect you have given me. You call me a failure, a mistake, because of something I could never control? You have lied to me about my mother. She was never dead.” 

“And what do you know about Honerva?” 

“What I know about my mother is that she was in love with someone else. Someone else who you used to be. You have treated me and her alike, but going after my son is low.” 

“You have no idea how to raise a child. That same child is the prince, one who is constantly spectated. Your child has the powers that not even Haggar could master. If you just knew how to train him-“ 

“Regardless of what powers he possesses, I do not plan on teaching him to use them for the wrong reasons. Yesterday you were able to control his mind from a galaxy away. So I came down to address that issue.” Lotor said, walking over to a panel that was on the side of the cell. “Don’t worry, no use in killing you. You always seem to come back alive. Your ex-wife has come up with this method.” 

“I command you not to do anything of the sort! Lotor!” 

Lotor pressed a button on the panel. What he was doing was he was setting up the cell with a kind of gas that made someone temporarily brain dead for a selective amount of time. This wouldn’t kill Zarkon, so he wouldn’t be able to get to his children through the ancestral methods of visions, but also wouldn’t allow whatever he was using to communicate with Zion. “It will help you pass the time.” He said, watching his father fall unconscious.

——

“Zion, come here.” Lotor said the day when they were back at Central Command. Zion and Eden both slept in the bed with their parents, but while they were sleeping Allura told Lotor about what was going on with Zion and said he was having ancestral dreams with Zarkon. Lotor was extremely shocked. 

“Think it’s time to continue with the experiments on finally putting my father to rest?” He asked, his voice a whisper. Eden lay on his chest, and his hand ran through her hair. Zion’s face was in Allura’s neck. 

“Do you think it’s time we told them?” Allura sighed, not wanting to face the day. They knew this day would have to come. 

So the next day Lotor was giving Zion a sword lesson and talked to him while he occasionally corrected Zion about his positions. “My father was an awful person. You mustn't give into his words.” 

“Is there any way to stop that annoying bitch from talking to me again? Because that whole thing with him possessing me freaked me out.” Zion asked. 

“Son, let me tell you a family secret.” Lotor said. “And while I’m at it, fix your right foot.” 

“What is it?” Zion corrected his sickled right foot, turning it out.

“Zarkon is not dead.” Lotor said. “He’s living in a highly secured prison. He came back to life after I killed him the first time, due to the dark matter that rids the southern rift.” 

“He’s WHAT.” Zion dropped his sword. 

“I kept him alive because we’ve been trying to figure out a way to get those dark creatures out of him, the ones that keep his body immortal. All of our methods have failed.” Lotor explained gravely. “I do not know how he got so powerful all by himself to be able to communicate with you and actually pilot the Black Lion.” 

“Well did you fix it?” 

“Yes. I did. He will not be bothering you anymore, so you do not have to worry.” Lotor winked, making Zion giggle. 

——

“Does it hurt to carry babies?” Eden asked while she played with her mother’s makeup. She sat on the bathroom counter, and Allura was doing her hair getting ready for the announcement meeting regarding Honerva’s state funeral. It was a meeting she did not want to go to. 

“Well with you, you were my easy baby. You were born so lightweight that in my last stage I had no back pain. You were also very hideable, at the time me and your father weren’t married and I was still fighting with team voltron. I wanted you to be a surprise for the most part. We were ecstatic finding out about you.” Allura said. “As for your brother, the back pain was plain awful. He kept me up most nights because he wouldn’t stop kicking.” She laughed. “And if you don’t remember, he was a very chubby lil thing.” 

“I remember.” Eden stood up on the counter. “Here. Try this shade. It looks good on you.” 

Allura looked at the eyeshadow Eden was offering her. It was rosemary gold. “Ah, you’re right.” 

“When can I wear makeup in public?” 

“16.” 

“16?! What?” Eden protested. 

“Okay, Fine. Make it twelve. But I don’t want you looking like someone you’re not.” 

“But-“ 

“Hey, you look like me and your father. Are you calling us ugly?” 

Eden crossed her arms and pouted, sinking down to a sitting position. “But I’m not you guys. I’m myself.” 

“Right you are, and you know what? I’ve never ever imagined my own child being ever so extraordinary. You want to know what you have that neither me nor your father or even your brother has?” Allura held Eden’s hands together. 

“What?” Eden whispered. 

“You can dance like a butterfly, and you have more grace than I’ve ever had.” Allura laid a kiss on Eden’s forehead. “And you are more self aware than anyone, which is a good thing. I wasn’t starting to figure myself out until I had you, and the same goes for your father.” 

“Thank you, Mama.” 

 

“So back to the good ol days, huh?” Zion played with his toy spaceships. They sat in Eden’s room. 

“It’s only been like a movement.” Eden was coloring a picture of a ninja. 

“Seemed like forever.” 

“And ever.”

They both sighed together dramatically, then burst out laughing. After the laughter calmed down, they were quiet.

“Man….” Zion put down his spaceship. “I’m sorry if I was being a headass. And I’m sorry I dropped your toothbrush in the toilet. And I’m also sorry that I put lizards in your bed in the middle of the night.” 

“I’m sorry I was being so uptight with you.” Eden put her crayon down. “I feel like I’m always correcting you, but you make this family interesting.” 

“I’m just glad that we’re back home.” 

“I was thinking… you know how you were controlling the Black Lion?” Eden scratched the back of her head.

“Zarkon like- possessed me. He was the first Black Paladin.” 

“But what if you really are able to control the Black Lion?” 

“I ain’t no leader. If anyone is the leader it’s you.” Zion laid on his back, looking up through the ceiling’s window at space. “I would love to be the red paladin some day, like Grandpa Alfor.” 

“Maybe we can be..” Eden laid on her back next to Zion. They both lay there quiet for a couple of minutes. 

 

——-  
——-

Dear reader, let me tell you a little something. 

Certainly not everything was happy. They lost a family member in a sudden death, and they were still recovering from the whole kidnapping incident. 

However, Eden and Zion were about to be apart of something great when they were older. 

So as Lotor and Allura day in the meeting with the Galra Empire’s highest officials and Eden and Zion played tag with Lux (if you don’t remember Acxa’s daughter) they had a little meeting on their own. 

They formed a pact. The pact was very crappily stated on a coloring book page, but all of them pretty much signed off that they were going to become the next round of paladins of Voltron. They didn’t know who else they would be with, but they were already predicting their lions and everything. 

They left the coloring sheet by Lotor’s throne, in which he saw it and picked it up. 

There it was, the three of them all drawn together and holding hands. At the top of the paper written in Galra stated “the future super duper space fighter explorers” 

Lotor couldn’t help but frame it.


	15. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins were fUCKING BORN and now I can finally freaking END THIS STORY

All of them fell into a sadness about Honerva’s passing. Lotor became the most disconnected, often ignoring his duties. But in the meantime they were all excited about the progression of Allura’s pregnancy. She did get a baby bump, and when she did she kept complaining about her back pain. 

Months later two healthy babies were born. 

They were early, but they were healthy. 

During Allura’s labor (which lasted just about two days and ended with Lotor having two broken fingers) Allura screamed and called the doctors assholes and threw a whole ass flower vase at Lotor. It wasn’t pretty, intact it was worse than Eden and Zion’s births. 

“It can’t be that bad.” Lotor told her. She looked at her and gave him a deadly glare. 

“Are you the one who carried two babies for half a year and now your body is trying to reject both of them? No! My boobs are sore, you disgusting swine!” She grabbed him by the collar, pulling him close to her face. “Go and make me a sandwich you whore!” 

Lotor walked out of the bedroom to see all of the paladins sitting out in the hall on a bench. “How is she holding out?” Shiro asked, scared to die to Lotor’s wrecked hair and tired eyes. 

“I don’t know how much longer I can take it. How long does a woman have to endure that kind of pain?” Lotor said, his voice raspy. He sat down with them.

“An interesting question. You’ve done this twice before, right?” Pidge asked.

“Well, this time she didn’t want any painkiller. I think my hand is broken.” Lotor shook his right hand out. 

“How?” Hunk looked at it. Two of his fingers just didn’t look right. 

“I held her hand when she was having a contraction.” 

“Oof.” Lance patted his back.

“Hang in there, Lotor.” Keith ruffled his hair.

Hours later, the twins were born. 

The older one was the baby girl named Xeona Amari. Xeona was a Galra name. Amari was an Altean name. 

Xeona was a pretty girl, and in the face she looked more like Lotor than Allura. She once again had the same repetitive nose that Eden and Zion had from Allura. She had fuzzy straight white hair that took her head in the form of a Mohawk, and small pointed ears (of course). Her skin was brown like Allura’s and Allura was more than happy that she would have a child like her. However, on the back of her neck was a dark grey Galra print that resembled Zarkon’s, but on her, this time it looked good. She was going to take that and slay it.

There was something unique about her Altean markings. Remember how Lotor’s were oddly shaped? Well hers were shaped like that. And like Eden, her Altean markings were red. They wouldn’t know until later if she possessed fangs or clawed nails. 

The first day she showed a lot of character, she came out basically screaming. They saw this as concern but nope, she was just screaming. When Lotor spoke and said “Oh look at her markings.” She turned her head and looked at him and gave him the most sour expression. Oh she was definitely smart, if the first day she was going to actually show the attitude. They knew she was going to be more of an extra hassle than Zion was. 

The second baby to be born was Zenon Raimon. 

Now Zenon was the concern. He didn’t come out crying, nor did he open his eyes. Doctors took him out of the room immediately and Lotor stayed with Allura. “I saw him breathing. Do not worry.” Lotor said. 

A few minutes later Zenon was brought back, and he was quietly murmuring happily to himself, his eyes wide and looking around. The doctors told Allura and Lotor that he was healthy, Just was lacking air. They told them to tell them of any further complications.

Zenon had the same fuzzy white hair too, but it covered his whole head. His skin was also brown, matching his twin’s. Zenon resembled much of Allura, and he had the same oddly shaped Altean markings, only they were blue like Zion’s. He had once again the same button upturned nose like Allura. 

Allura and Lotor looked down at their kids a few hours later, and Eden and Zion, along with the paladins, were invited in to hold them. “They both have the same eyes!” Zion pointed out. They did. The outer part of their eyes was very faintly yellow, not as much yellow as Eden and Lotor’s sclera, but definitely Galra. Their irises were golden, atypical of Lotor and Allura’s blue irises. 

They were golden just like Honerva’s. 

“This is a whole ass baby.” Zion said, making everyone laugh.

“I just want to squeeze it til’ it’s head pops off.” Eden said, holding a smiling Xeona tightly.

“Heck yeah this one right here-“ Zion pointed down to Zenon, nodding his head. “I call it.” 

“Well then I call this one!” Eden hugged Xeona tighter, and Allura had to warn her not to do that. 

The day was spent just sitting there and taking in their new family members. 

When they were five days old, Allura woke Lotor up. It was the big day, the announcement of their birth to the Empire. It would be held in the ballroom of Central Command, and the higher ups along with planetary leaders were invited. It would also be broadcasted all over the Empire. Lotor held Zenon against his bare chest, reminiscing on how Eden and Zion were once that tiny. “I’ll get up in a little bit. Where’s Xeona?” 

“In the crib, I finally got her to sleep.” Allura said. “I’m hoping this bump goes down soon. It better go down soon.” 

“You look fine.” Lotor murmured, trying not to wake Zenon. 

“Hmm, I don’t know. I’m worried-“ 

“Worried that you’re the most beautiful queen to ever enter a state presentation?” He said. Allura’s face turned a deep red, and from the crib they heard a high pitched giggle. 

 

During the presentation, the family all wore their best outfits. Eden and Zion stood by their mother’s side, Zion picking his nose and Eden wriggling around, unable to stay still. The paladins all stood in a line behind them, representing the alliance the New Galra Empire had with them.

“Today we will inaugurate two new members of the royal bloodline.” The archivist announced. “These titles will be presented until the selection of a new Emperor or Empress and could be withdrawn by leader’s command.” 

“Which is NOT going to happen.” Lotor said, holding his two newest children. They both were asleep in his arms. The audience couldn’t get enough of how cute they were. 

“The first title would be given to the first child born, and third child of Emperor Lotor and Queen Allura. I crown Princess Xeona Amari-Sincline of the New Galra Empire, named for a Miracle Creator.” The archivist held up a baby sized Luxite and gold tiara, placing it carefully on the baby’s head. The audience cheered. “The second title will be given to the second born and fourth child of Emperor Lotor and Queen Allura. I crown Prince Zenon Raimon-Sincline of the New Galra Empire, named after Zenon the Explorer and King Alfor of Planet Altea.” He pulled out a same kind of Luxite and Gold crown, shaped differently, putting it on Zenon’s head. Outside of royal events, the children would not have to wear the crowns. Lotor has his own collection of crowns growing up that he never really wore. The same went for Zarkon and Alfor both, their royal status becoming their armor and capes. 

So the celebration all happened, and in the midst of the after party, Hunk had a very important announcement to give, along with his girlfriend Shay. He took her hand and stood at the top of the steps of the ballroom. “Um yes, may I have all y’all Galra folks’ attention please?” He called out, getting the room to be silent. “Me and my girl have an announcement to make on behalf of Team Voltron. And that is that we’re having a baby.” 

“You’re having a WHAT?” Lance passed out, and Keith had to catch him. The rest of everyone cheered. Shay became bashful. Aw, Shay. 

“And I’ve decided that I wanted to raise a family with my one and only love of my life and with nobody else… so…..” Hunk kneeled down, taking out a ring. Everyone began clapping, knowing what he was about to do. “Shay, will you marry me?” 

“Say yes, say yes!” Zion began chanting, getting everyone else in the room to join in. She nodded, tears filling her eyes. 

But it wasn’t over from there. 

That night it was only the paladins along with Lotor’s family chilling out. “This one is going to be your quiet one.” Shay said, cradling Zenon. “He’s a sweetheart.” 

“I can tell this one is going to be your Zion: take 2.” Keith held up Xeona, who made a funny face and spat up all over him. They all laughed when this happened, and Keith cringed and handed the child over to Lance. 

“When Zion was born he was a very specific baby.” Allura said. “I just remember him not wanting to fall asleep unless he was full and was in the correct position.” 

“What? Someone talkin shit about me?” Zion popped up from behind the couch. 

“Eden was our happy baby. She would just crack herself up all the time.” Lotor said. 

“I’m just happy we get to do this all over again.” Allura added. 

“I wonder what it’s like to raise a child.” Lance said. “Of course me and Keith have been holding our marriage off because we just haven’t had the time. But being one who grew up in a big family, I would love to see what it’s like.” 

“I’ve been thinking about that whole thing too.” Keith said, his mouth to his hands, thinking. 

“You should adopt.” Pidge suggested. “Like, if you guys feel like the time is right to.” 

Keith and Lance looked at each other for a second. 

“Well I guess we just HAVE to ask.” Lance said. “How hard is it to raise a kid?” 

“You have to devote your time to your child as a priority. That is rule number 1.” Allura said. “And maybe.. they’ll turn out to be strong and courageous.” 

“And make sure they remember to brush their teeth.” Lotor looked over at Zion. “And clean their room.” He turned to look over at Eden. They both giggled. 

Then they all realized that a brand new generation of heroes were brewing. And possibly… they could all be the new defenders of the universe. 

-End-


End file.
